


Matinee

by RiYuYami



Series: Pulling Strings [24]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Gen, Post-Game(s), Pre-Game(s), Pulling Strings au, Slice of Life, What happened before and after those thirty years without Henry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-19
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-03-06 17:21:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 26,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13415976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiYuYami/pseuds/RiYuYami
Summary: Freedom in the world of the living is a strange concept, and this is coming from a li’l cartoon devil and an old, war-weary animator, but there’s always something good to find in it, yeah?A collection of one-shots based after Henry escapes Joey Drew Studios with the Toons, and even stories of his time working there.





	1. The First Night

**Author's Note:**

> Originally, I wasn’t going to post this until chapter four was released, but because I really want to actually write some post-game stuff, and I’ve got four chapters written so far… well… I’m breaking my own promise.
> 
> So here is a chunk of the Pulling Strings au, all post-game. I put them all in one fic because it’s just easier that way, unlike the prequel stories and the in-game one-shots. Originally this was meant to be its own set of stories, but I like the idea of it being connected to Pulling Strings, especially when it comes to Bendy and Henry’s relationship. Also, it’s just more fun that way.
> 
> This is just one story, there will be more, random ones, no linear order.
> 
> A lot of stuff about Toon physics will be explained in other one-shots in this story, but right now, Henry, because there is demonic ink in him, can still do a few things that aren’t really normal for humans, like surviving death so many times. It makes a lot more sense if you’ve read some of the other fanfics in the Pulling Strings series.
> 
> The Toons themselves can do Toon physics simply because of the ink they’re made of, it’s not normal, it’s magic. How else are they even alive, right?
> 
> On with the fic!

Henry rubbed at the bridge of his nose, feeling utterly exhausted and drained.

Of course, he’d be feeling like this, he spent who knows how long high-strung, running for his life to make sure he could stop Joey and get the hell out of that old studio. And, obviously, he had to keep his old friends safe.

He glanced at the three additions in his old truck. Boris was in the passenger seat, his arms wrapped around Alice as she kept her face pressed against his shoulder. Her eyes were closed, but Henry knew she was awake, she was just as tired as he was, but was just as alert after everything that happened.

The third, the title character of their cartoons, was in Henry’s lap. Like how Alice sat, Bendy’s face was hidden in Henry’s shoulder, as it had been since they stepped out of the studio. Bendy has been silent the whole time, the only dialogue so far in the past hour was from Boris when he has asked where they were going.

Henry had said they would head up to his home, he lived up north, it was a few hours’ drive. Henry figured he could make it, but he was so utterly exhausted, he would rather just do it in the morning. He yawned, glancing at the small, old wristwatch he kept in his truck. The strap was broken, but the watch worked just fine, he kept in it the truck for long drives. It was a few minutes past midnight, from what the glow-in-the-dark numbers and hands told him.

He looked up at the road, seeing they were entering a small town, a sign for a hotel brand caught his attention. “Gonna be takin’ a detour guys, I can’t drive the five hours left of the journey, we’re gonna stay in a hotel. Is that fine?”

“Sounds good ta me, Henry.” Boris spoke up.

“Yeah, I just want to lay down and sleep. No offense, Boris, but your lap is boney.” Alice mumbled, getting a small laugh from the musician.

Bendy was still silent, but there was a small shift from him. Henry took that as his approval.

He drove another mile before pulling into the parking lot of the hotel. He glanced at the building before looking at Bendy. He turned off is truck and gently tapped the demon’s back. “Hey, punk, you gotta get off. I’m not gonna carry you up to the front desk.”

Bendy let out a small growl that wasn’t really threatening.

“Boris? Help?” Henry sighed, seeing the wolf reach over, gently gripping onto Bendy, trying not to squeeze him. Bendy protested with moans of annoyance, but gave up, he just sort of… hung limp in Boris’ hold, his head down, like he didn’t want to look at anyone.

Henry sighed again, shaking his head. “I’ll be right back, you guys stay in here, okay? I’ll get us a room.”

“Don’t you want us to come in?” Alice asked, frowning.

He shook his head. “Not now, I don’t really wanna scare the front desk clerk just yet. Let’s do that in the morning, it’s gonna be hard enough to explain why I’m covered in ink anyway, it’ll be impossible to explain you guys, since, well… you know.”

The two Toons looked at one another before nodding at the animator, watching him leave to enter the hotel. Bendy finally struggled and got out of Boris’ hold, dropping onto the driver’s seat. He adjusted himself, curling up against the seat, his back facing his friends.

“Bendy?” Boris frowned. “You alright?”

He shrugged, waving them off. He didn’t really want to talk, he was… well… he just wanted to sleep like everyone else. He felt like he went through way more than the other three, physically, emotionally, and mentally.

Which, sadly, he did.

Alice frowned, reaching out to touch him, but she decided not to do that. She sat back, toying with a lock of hair, before perking up, seeing Henry returning to the truck. He opened the door, glancing at Bendy, before looking at the other two. “Come on, I got us a room. We can go through the side door, less likely to be noticed by the clerk. He didn’t seem happy with me covered in ink, had to give him some… really stupid excuse, somethin’ about paintin’ a boat and got splattered.”

“Dat is stupid.” Bendy finally spoke up, staring up at Henry with a look. The old man scoffed and scooped him right up, though Bendy yelped in protest. “Put me down!”

“Shush.” Henry hissed. “You let me hold you for over an hour, you can put up with it for another few minutes. I don’t want you runnin’ off.”

“Then carry Alice an’ Boris too!”

“I can at least trust them to not cause trouble the moment they get out, you, however, are impossible to tell with.”

Bendy opened his mouth to protest, but… Henry had a point. Still, he pouted, clinging to Henry when the human grabbed something from behind the seat. It was a thin suitcase, he hadn’t even known it was there.

With some adjusting and movement, Henry was able to get his keys out of the truck and locked it up once the Toons were out. “Come.” He moved towards the side of the building, seeing the door. Bendy was hiding his face once more, but Alice and Boris were looking at everything in awe.

Colors were still new to them, in their world of cartoons, colors were… well… shades of gray, white, and black. And there wasn’t much in terms of color in the studio, so that wasn’t any help.

Here, even in the late night, with only the soft, ugly orange glow of street lamps, and the sign of the hotel, they could see color. They had very limited experience with colors before, when they were first formed, before everything began to go to Hell in a handbasket. They knew a few colors, from people’s clothing and colored objects brought in, before they entered the twisted confines of the studio, taking on the limited pallet of grays or sepia tone.

He heard them whisper to one another and Henry glanced at Bendy. “Hey, you wanna see something?”

“See what?” Came the muffled reply.

“I know you like to do a lot of your favorite antics in the light of the moon, wanna see what the moon looks like in my world?”

Bendy was hesitant, before nodding.

Henry gave a small smile and moved Bendy a bit so he could look up in the right direction. Bendy hesitantly glanced up, blinking, eyes wide as he stared right at the moon. It was not quite full, but it was still huge, and glowing a lovely, soft yellow. It was much different from the moon in the cartoons, that had faces and was white and gray.

“It’s huge!” Bendy exclaimed. “Where’s the face?”

“It’s there.” The old animator huffed, trying to get a better hold on the squirmy dancer. “See? Right there, in the craters.”

“I sees it!” Boris gasped, laughing. “Dat’s just da bee’s knees!”

Bendy pouted, tilting his head. “I don’t see it, but the moon still looks swell, even without a face.” He yawned loudly, and Henry was reminded that they all needed a good night’s rest. He walked up to the door, opening it, it was unlocked. How unsafe, oh well, that’s not the worst thing to happen tonight.

He went inside, Alice and Boris following, and was so thankful for a first-floor room. He made his way down a long hall, before finding room 113. He had Alice unlock the door for him, as his hands were occupied, and they stepped in.

The fallen angel turned on the lights and they all winced from the brightness, before adjusting to it. The room was rather plain, but the blankets on the bed were tacky, as expected, as was the art on the wall. There was a television and a small fridge, along with a desk. A bathroom was off to the left and Henry was so happy to see it, he needed a shower so badly. He approached a bed, setting Bendy down on it, before taking his suitcase. “Make yourselves comfortable, I’m gonna shower and change. Alice, keep Bendy outta trouble.”

He got a raspberry from the demon in response for that.

\--

The shower was a god damn blessing for Henry as he felt the dry ink on his skin wash away. He had wished that the stains that were on his skin from all the contact he made with the stuff would wash away as well, but years of drawing with ink, and dealing with animating toons, well, he knew that it would take a while.

Speaking of toons, he wondered what he was going to do with them, now that they were in the real world with him, not in the studio, where things were different.

They could do anything Toons could do in the animated world in that place, were they able to do the same here? The studio was a strange place, it basically was trapped between two realities, where anyone could develop Toon abilities, at least if “Bendy” let them with his ink, considering how often he gave it to Henry to keep him alive.

Henry himself had learned a thing or two of Toon physics while he had been there, like not really dying, and split-second dodges. He wasn’t going to admit it, but “Bendy’s” murder of him during the whole “Alice” ordeal actually saved his ass a few times, seeing as he moved a lot faster thanks to the demonic ink in his system, and he was able to fight with some extra energy from it.

It felt like that he had a lucky break going for him, if he was still able to keep from dying, but that might be a little harder to do now that he didn’t have access to ink puddles and streams. Though being quicker was a nice change, especially in his current years, same with the extra energy.

And then there was a certain ‘feel’ to him, that didn’t seem quite human anymore, but it was barely noticeable in his opinion. A leftover feeling of the effects of the demonic ink in his system from accidental consumption when he first ran away from “Bendy”, and when the demon decided to shove a finger into his mouth to make him drink more ink before he ‘killed’ him. And of course, all the encounters with the substance there after.

At least, that’s what he’d like to think. He’ll worry about all of this later, it wasn’t bad, but still, it was a bit unnerving. Just… everything that happened, how much the studio had changed, all the monsters, the ‘people’, the Toons, even Joey himself…

How long had he really been there?

The newspaper on the countertop he had seen at the front desk told him that he had been there for four days, but it felt like weeks. Time was inconsistent there, the Bendy clocks he found moved like they should, but none told a correct time.

Thank god, he asked his boss for a week off, saying some dumb excuse, he couldn’t even remember what it was anymore. He shook his head and turned off the shower, seeing that the ink was gone, even though his skin still had the faint stains, but again, they’ll go away in time.

He dried off and got dressed in his pajamas he had packed, since he didn’t know how long this ‘visit’ with Joey would take. Stepping out of the bathroom, he found that the main light was off, but a lamp was still on, and so was the television. He looked over at the two beds, Alice was curled up under the blankets of one, blissfully asleep. Boris was lying next to her, not under the blankets, but curled up like a dog.

Bendy was the only one awake, sitting right where Henry had left him. He seemed to be staring at the television, but even with those big, cartoon eyes, it was obvious he wasn’t paying attention to whatever was playing. Glancing at the television, Henry saw that Bendy had left it on some old movie, the volume turned down.

“Hey, Bendy.” Henry spoke up softly, catching the Toon’s attention.

The demon blinked, looking over at him, confused for a moment. “What?” He finally asked, watching Henry approach, before he sat down.

“You should be restin’.”

“Heh, easier said than done, Ross.” Bendy scoffed, a rueful smile on his face. “Got… a lot on my mind, ‘s all…”

Henry raised an eyebrow. “A lot happened there.”

“More than you know.”

“I know.”

A silence came over them and Bendy let out a loud, exaggerated sigh. “We both gotta lotta say, but I don’t think now’s the time for that… but…” He scratched at his head. “Thanks, for everythin’, ol’ man.”

He felt a hand on his back, gently rubbing it. “No problem, I didn’t want to abandon you guys a second time, especially to a fate worse than the one before.” Henry replied quietly, still keeping his hand on the smaller of the two.

Bendy looked up at him, his eyes were wide, and a little wet. He chuckled softly, rubbing at one of his eyes. “I’m leakin’ again, heh… maybe some sleep’ll help with that…”

“Yeah, it should. Come on.” Henry got up, turning off the television before moving to the lamp, shutting it off. The only light was coming from the windows, the ugly orange of the street lamps. Bendy watched Henry as he moved to get into the bed that wasn’t really occupied, slipping under the covers.

The dancing demon looked at the bed with his friends. He could crawl into bed with them, but he didn’t want to be rude and wake them up. Especially after all the trouble he gave them earlier. He glanced back at the bed he was sitting on, seeing a whole side left open, the one facing the window.

He bit his lip, well… Henry seemed to be offering him the rest of the bed… and he wanted to stay on his old animator’s good side, so… crawling over, Bendy got under the sheets and pulled the blanket up to his chin. He glanced at Henry, then at his friends, letting out a small sigh as he closed his eyes.

He wondered what would happen tomorrow, he hoped there would be a tomorrow, and not another confused lapse in time where he didn’t know how long it’s been since he’s known the date.

Please don’t let this just be a hopeless dream… don’t let him wake up in the pipes, feeling upset and betrayed…

\--

Something horribly bright hit Bendy right in his eyes and he growled, turning to hide his face into his pillow. Uhg, did Joey find him with a flashlight or something…

Wait.

Pillow?

Blinking, Bendy sat right up, glancing about. This wasn’t one of his hiding places, he clearly wasn’t in the pipes, nor was this a broken studio that was falling apart at the seams. There wasn’t any ink here, except for him and… Alice and Boris. They were still in the other bed, of this hotel, sleeping soundly. Heck, Boris was snoring, little Z’s coming up over his head, vanishing as he inhaled, only to return when he exhaled.

Oh, looks like Toon logic still somewhat works on the outside.

Reaching behind himself, Bendy pulled out something from hammerspace, a pan and a spoon. A little smirk came to his face, he could be a little brat and wake everyone up, banging on the pan loudly with the spoon.

But… well… everyone was sleeping peacefully, even the old man, who was snoring softly next to him, facing the bed to his right, where their friends were.

With a loud, annoyed sigh, Bendy put the pot and spoon back behind him, vanishing with ease. Great, everyone was asleep and he was awake. And that damn light was bothering him!

He turned his head to the left, eyes wide as he looked at the source of light out the window.

Getting out of the bed, he made his way to the window, staring out at the horizon, where he saw a bright splash of colors. Red, orange, yellow, purple, and blue, blending into one another up into the sky where it was almost pitch black.

He remembered once, when he spoke with Sammy before the poor man completely lost himself to the ink, what was something he missed about the outside world.

Sammy had been quiet, and before Bendy could tell him to answer the question, he was wasting the demon’s time, the musician had replied with… well… the sunrise. He told the little demon about the beautiful blend of colors of the sun rising into the sky, to brighten the day. He said it reminded him of some of the few, good moments in his life.

Bendy, for once in his life, had to agree with Sammy on something.

This was a good moment.

He quietly watched the sun rise, it hurt to look at the reddish-orange disk on the horizon, rising over the tree line, but it was worth the sting to his black eyes.

“Ya like it?”

He nearly jumped out of his skin at the soft, gruff voice, obviously sounding tired. Glancing over his shoulder, Bendy found that Henry was awake, yawning as he rubbed at one of his eyes. “Go back to sleep, Henry, ya need the rest. You humans ain’t like us Toons, we don’t really HAVE to sleep.” That was a lie, sure, Toons could withstand fatigue better, but even they had a limit.

He wasn’t gonna admit it out loud, but Bendy would like for the guy to be well rested, especially after everything that had happened.

“Nah.” Henry replied as he got up, walking over to the window. “I’m usually up at this point anyway, force of habit or whatever.”

A silence covered them as they continued to watch the sunrise. “Sammy… told me about this once.” Bendy said softly, his fingers flexing at his sides. Why was he nervous to talk to Henry? He hadn’t shut up much when around the man when he was chasing him down, even if a lot of his ‘words’ didn’t come out as words to the human’s ears. At least not until a bit later into the ‘game’ “Bendy” had set up for Henry, and hell, even in the dreams he made Henry have, he wouldn’t shut his big, dumb mouth.

“He said he liked ‘em.” The dancer continued. “Said it was a nice thing. I’ve never seen one, not even in mah show.”

Henry raised an eyebrow, thinking back on this. He had never animated something like this before in his Bendy shorts, usually the demon slept in and was awoken by Boris or some cartoony alarm clock. “I’m not surprised.” Henry spoke up. “Sammy was all artsy, he liked things he could write songs about.”

Bendy nodded, looking down at his feet. “I kinda miss the nut.”

“Same here.”

Which Sammy did they speak about? The one they knew in the past? Or the one who died and didn’t deserve such a fate that happened him in these past thirty years?

Neither had an answer.

“I’m hungry.” Bendy changed the subject so easily, but he really was hungry. “Does this place got grub? It’s been ages since I had a bite to eat.”

“Yeah, let me check.” Henry turned to head for the door, but a hand grabbed his shirt. He glanced down, seeing Bendy was holding him.

“Can I come?”

Henry was gonna tell him no, but it was so early in the morning, he doubted that anyone would pay them any attention if they went down and grabbed breakfast. “Hmm… okay, just don’t make a ruckus.”

“Please, ol’ man!” Bendy smirked. “Do ya honestly think I’d do anythin’?”

“Yes. Especially with that gleam in your eye. Come on, pipsqueak.”

“Don’ call me dat.” Bendy grumbled, pouting at his creator.

The animator ignored his complaint, leaving the room quietly with the key and the demon, heading down the hall. He spotted the small dining area where breakfast was set out. It was only just about six in the morning, so the food should still be fresh. He didn’t see anyone in the area, not even a staff member.

“Come on, let’s grab something for us and the other two.” Henry mumbled, taking Bendy’s hand, having him follow after him. He then paused. “Wait, do you even eat human food? I know Boris does.”

Bendy nodded. “We ate a lot of that soup, and some other stuff. Plus, we eat it in the show!”

“Right, right.” Henry nodded, walking into the dining area, seeing where the food was set up. “You know what your friends like, grab what they’d like for them, and I’ll get our food. Whatcha want?”

Bendy looked at his options, not a whole lot. He saw dispensers for cereal, that could work for him. “Anythin’ sweet from that.” He pointed at the dispensers, then he moved to grab a paper plate and three muffins, all for Boris. And he grabbed two oranges for Alice, she’d like that, he was sure!

He spotted paper cups, with little flower designs on them. He filled those with orange juice, but noticed that Henry was getting something black in color from a glass pot, putting it into a glass mug. Oh, coffee, right, he didn’t like that stuff too much, not even in his cartoons, too bitter.

Henry grabbed a muffin for himself, then he got Bendy a bowl of cereal, some sugary, fruity stuff. “Ready?” He asked, looking at his creation.

Bendy nodded and they made it back to the room, finding that Alice was already awake, looking so relieved to see them. “Where did you two go?”

“Gotcha food!” Bendy announced, loudly, startling Boris from his sleep. He proudly marched his way over to his friends, giving them the plate and cups. “Enjoy! I picked ‘em out myself!”

Alice and Boris looked confused, before glancing at Henry, whose expression just basically said ‘just deal with it, he’s trying to be nice’. They smiled, thanking him for the food, before beginning to dig in after Bendy told them who got what.

The dancing demon was given his bowl of cereal, which he happily began to devour, while Henry sat down at the desk, sipping his weak coffee. He watched the three cartoons happily talking about their food, especially Bendy, who was excited about the colors of the little loops, even saying that they looked like Alice’s halo, only better. He got an orange peel thrown at him and he just laughed.

Henry couldn’t help the small smile on his lips, hidden behind the rim of his mug. Something like this is a good reason for him to have saved these three, and… well… it’s a good moment in his long, hard life, that he can enjoy.

END


	2. Let's Go to the Show

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is chapter two, sorry for the delay, been working on an au for my yugioh blog and forgot to post this even though it's been done for days now.
> 
> Warning: mild body horror mentioned 
> 
> By the way, going with the fandom last name for Henry as Ross, since I haven’t really seen another last name for him outside of that one
> 
> On with the fic!

“Hey Ross, guess what!”

Henry paused in his sketch, looking up at his fellow soldier who walked into his little room, grinning from ear to ear. Timmy Smith was always an excitable kid, even with all the things happening on the battlefield. He was that little bit of hope that everyone clung to, hey, someone’s gotta be it, right?

“What’s up, Smith?” Henry asked, raising an eyebrow. “Did the war finally end?” He chuckled dryly.

“I wish!” Smith sighed loudly, but then smiled again. “I found out that the little theater here in town is gonna set up a showing of cartoons for us! You know, to keep us happy while we stay here.”

They were in a small town in England, stationed here temporarily to recuperate and gather supplies, to make up plans with the Brits before heading back to war-torn France. The little town they were staying at had been very kind and people had opened their homes for soldiers, same with the inns, like the one Henry was sitting in.

It was nice to take a little break, especially since it gave Henry time to rest and draw. Sure, he wasn’t animating, but that didn’t stop him from keeping up with improving his skills. His realistic drawings have improved greatly, but so did his cartoon sketches. Especially his drawings of Bendy, the little devil darling always managed to put a bit of a smile on his face when Henry drew him.

Almost every page of his sketchbook had a Bendy on them, even the cover did. He was proud of his creation, even if his troop laughed when they found out what his actual job was. What did he care? He loved his work, he was happy that he had created Bendy and his friends, had gotten to work on the show in the first few years.

However, he worried what Joey had done with his creations, his toons. He knew Joey had basically snatched them away the moment he was forced out the door. He hoped that the cartoons were still somewhat true to themselves…

“What sort of toons are they gonna show?” Henry asked, looking up at Smith. The freckled boy shrugged.

“I think it’s gonna be some Disney and Warner stuff, but hey! Maybe they’ll show some of those Bendy shorts!” The younger solider grinned. “I always did like those ones, the dancin’ devil is always funny.”

The old animator nodded, setting his sketchbook aside, the dancing devil on the page left alone for now. “What time are they showing the cartoons?”

“I think it about twenty minutes, come on! Let’s go get us some good seats, it’s been ages since I’ve been in a theater that wasn’t damaged!”

\--

Henry sighed a little as he sat back in his seat, Smith happily sat next to him, chattering away with a British soldier who had sat down next to him. The theater lights dimmed, meaning the show was about to begin.

The theater went quiet, until happy music began to play, and the first toon started, one from Disney, staring his signature character. Henry, unlike Joey, never had a problem with the competition. All the other studios had their own way of doing toons, of doing characters.

Fleischer liked to do things aimed a little more at adults, until the Hays code put an end to that, and Popeye had a bit of funny violence to it, again, aimed more at adults. Plus, rotoscope was their department, and they knew how to use it.

Disney was more wholesome, with a bit of adult humor thrown in sometimes, like the war shorts, and the concept of color and sound was used very often with ol’ Walt.

The Warner Brothers sure loved them some violent, loud cartoons, and a bit racy too. They always push the bar of what they can and can’t do.

Of course, then there’s Drew Studio’s characters, wholesome, but all tricksters.

Alice Angel, the sweet gal, could be as wicked as her voice was perfect. She could stir up trouble just as fast as Bendy, and sometimes do a lot more hilarious damage than him, especially when he was caught off-guard.

Boris was always sneaking around, taking food, messing with sheep, but he was a happy-go-lucky guy who really didn’t do any real physical harm to anyone. He was a good boy, but could get into mischief if he wanted to.

And then there was Bendy, that darlin’ devil of a dancer, always ready to entertain the masses with his cute smile and his wicked pranks. He always had something up his sleeves for everyone and everything. Some of his most famous pranks were animated and thought up by Henry himself, and he was always proud of them.

Sure, the guy seemed like a hard ass, someone who was very focused on his work and whatever task he was on, but he was also just as much of a trickster as his favorite creation. He’d like to think that he had a bit of Bendy in him just as much as Bendy had a bit of Henry in him when he was up to no good. Once, Henry had been told that a creator, be them artist, inventor, writer, whatever, always put a little bit of themselves into their work to give it personality.

Well, that was clear as day with Bendy if you knew Henry.

The Disney cartoon ended with a happy ending, as expected, but Henry’s eyes widened when he heard the ever-familiar Lawrence-made song, the screen going from color to monochrome as the new cartoon began.

“Hey Ross, it’s your shit!” A soldier called to Henry, but it went ignored, as did the laughter.

Henry’s eyes were focused on the screen as the title card for Sillyvision and Drew Studios appeared, with the outline of Bendy’s head.

Next was the title of the cartoon, Bendy and Friends in… Battlefield Follies.

This was a new cartoon, Henry knew every Bendy short that had been created during his time at the studio, and he had a strong feeling that Joey was behind this one.

He gripped the armrests of his seat tightly as the next card showed that Joey HAD taken claim over HIS cartoons! Uhg! What a jackass, he couldn’t even bother to tell him?!

‘Characters created by Joey Drew’, what a load of bullshit!

The short began and Henry winced, the animation looked so… tired, bland, it wasn’t the best. He wasn’t gonna praise himself for being the best, but at least when he worked there, the characters seemed to have life to them.

Sure, these ones were active, with Bendy chasing Boris around with a toy cork gun, wearing a little helmet, but there was something off about them… something he couldn’t quite place…

He sunk in his seat, ignoring the laughter from the audience when Boris’ own cork gun popped by Bendy’s backside, startling the little imp. He sighed, rubbing at his forehead, but a voice caught his attention.

“Henry…! Is that you?!”

He blinked, knowing that voice. It sounded like the voice he always had in mind for Bendy in his head, but they never could get someone to voice him, especially since it was Henry’s own voice from when he was a child that he liked to think Bendy sounded like. Hell, they only had JUST started doing talking toon before he left, only got a few shorts in with Alice as the main voice, Boris and Bendy never given one. Joey always liked the idea of them being silent, but Henry hated it, they needed to speak, actions could only speak so much for characters.

He looked up at the screen, shocked to see Bendy standing there, looking as stunned as himself. “B-Boris…!” Bendy shouted, pointing at the audience. “Do ya see him?!”

Boris turned his head, looking just as surprised as his friend. “It is him..! He’s here! W-where’s Alice, she needs ta see he’s okay!”

Henry was confused, this didn’t seem to be part of the cartoon. The audience was still laughing, and Smith made a comment about how funny Bendy was for getting Alice with a pie, but that never happened on the screen.

No, Henry was seeing a totally different cartoon.

Alice appeared, running in after Bendy yelled her name, and she gasped. Her sweet, beautiful voice, Susie’s, was loud and clear to him. “Good golly gosh… Henry, there you are! Please, come home…! W-we need you!”

“Need me?” He whispered. “Why?”

“B-Because Joey… he…” Boris began before he coughed, clutching at his chest as he stumbled. Bendy and Alice gasped, turning to their friend.

Boris let go of his chest, looking so terrified as something black and wet squirted out of his now-open torso, his heart wasn’t there, but his inky blood still came out. “H-Help us…” He wheezed before his eyes turned to Xs, the wolf dropping to the ground with a wet splat.

Alice screamed, stumbling back as laughter filled the room from the soldiers, none of them seeing what Henry was seeing.

The little fallen angel was sobbing, before she grabbed at her face, sobs turned to screams as her face changed in front of Bendy and Henry’s eyes. No, no…! Henry stood up from his seat, watching in horror as her body painfully changed, becoming more human-like, but it mutated.

She growled, shoving past Bendy as she went to Boris’ body.

“Oh sweet God…” Henry covered his mouth, that wasn’t his little angel, that was something else, something… familiar. This… creature, who dared to wear Alice’s horns, her halo, snatched up Boris’ body, laughing with a distorted voice, before running off screen with the dead wolf.

Bendy nervously looked at his… “friends” as they left, before turning to Henry, fear was clear in his obviously off-model eyes. “Henry… Joey… he’s done things, terrible things, you gotta come back, you gotta-!” He gasped as a big glob of ink dripped down his face. “No! Nonononooo…! I-I don’t want to be _him_ again, please…! **Save us!** ”

The little devil’s body started to melt, ink pooling over his eyes as his limbs grew longer the more he melted, his screams of fear transformed into cackles as he moved towards the screen. He raised a clawed hand, scratching through the screen, stepping out of the tears.

No longer a 2-D image, he was real, and he was making his way to where Henry stood.

 ** _“You didn’t save us in time…”_** The… thing that what was once Bendy snarled, before jumping, flying towards him with his claws at the ready…

“HENRY!”

The animator’s eyes shot open and he sat up quickly, his head spinning from the sudden movement. He groaned, flopping back on the bed, only to feel a terrible, sudden pain in his side, and a shout of pain from whatever it was he landed on.

“Hey! G-Get off of me…!”

Rolling over, Henry noticed that he had landed on Bendy, who was rubbing his head, looking really annoyed. “Jeez, ol’ man! What the heck was that all about?!”

“W-what?” Henry blinked, looking around. He was in his room, Bendy’s little bed was empty, but that was normal. Bendy would go to sleep there, but wake up somewhere else in the morning, more often than not, he would end up in Henry’s bed.

Right… this isn’t the war, this isn’t the studio, this is his tiny house, shared between him and the three toons he had rescued. This was real, cause he sure as hell felt that pain from landing on Bendy.

Speaking of…

He looked down at Bendy, seeing that he was the tiny, cute darling, not the horrific beast that had chased the old man through one-too-many halls. Bendy looked at him, tilting his head. “You… okay?”

“Nightmare.” Henry breathed out, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“The war?”

“Sorta, more like… a memory of a good time, that turned into a nightmare.”

Bendy frowned, moving to sit up. “Wanna talk about it? Ya always talk to me when you’ve got a problem.”

Henry looked at him and sighed, shrugging. “It was a memory of a downtime in the war, went to see a bunch of cartoon shorts at a theater, a little pleasure in times of combat.”

Bendy nodded, listening to him, and Henry continued. “I remember it pretty well, a friend of mine invited me to go see the show, and we were in the theater. A Disney short played first, I remember that, and then you came up.”

The Toon perked up.

“But it was a later one, after I was fired, so Joey was behind it.”

The Toon frowned deeply.

“It was… the dream was wrong, the short wasn’t the one I had seen in the theater, the one I saw for real had been one with you and Alice, and that forced romance thing Joey really wanted for you guys. But in the dream… you and Boris were using toy guns to fire at one another, but somethin’ happened, you spoke out to me, shocked to see me in the audience.”

Bendy bit his lip, toying with the blanket under him. “I did?”

“Yes, you and Boris were tryin’ to talk to me, Alice tried to as well. But then… shit, Boris, his chest opened, there was ink coming out, he had no heart and he…” The image of Boris on that table, near the break room, the collection of Boris bodies in “Alice’s” lair... speaking of her. “Alice changed, turning into that monster that wore her name and face.”

The demon swallowed. “And… I’m guessin’ I turned back into… him.”

Henry nodded. “But you’re not him anymore, Alice isn’t her, and Boris is very much alive.” He reached out, putting his hand on the Toon’s head, rubbing between his horns. “Nightmares are shitty.”

“Ya don’t have to tell me twice.” Bendy sighed, leaning into the touch. “Don’t worry, the other me is long gone, he ain’t comin’ back, at least not like how he was before. I mean, if I ever turn into him again, at least you can bet your button I ain’t gonna be tryin’ to kill ya again! Same with that awful Alice, and we won’t be seein’ anymore dead Borises in the future, I’ll make sure of it!”

The old human smiled at the Toon, giving him a pat on the head. “Yeah, thank you, punk. Alright, back to sleep, I’ve got work in the mornin’, and you’ve got a house to destroy, I’m sure.” He stated as he moved to lay down again, lifting up the blanket so Bendy could get under. The little guy always slept completely covered up by a blanket when he was in bed, for whatever reason.

“I ain’t gonna destroy the place, but if there’s a new hole in the wall, tellin’ ya now, it wasn’t me.”

“I don’t like the sound of that. Stop putting holes in the wall.”

“No promises.”

“You’re fixin’ it if you’re responsible.”

“Again, no promises. Go to sleep, ol’ man, ya got work in a few hours.”

Henry grunted and sighed, closing his eyes, feeling Bendy shifting a bit to get more comfortable. A thought occurred to him and he opened his eyes. “Bendy? When I was in the studio, and even before then… did you talk to me in my dreams?”

Bendy was silent and shrugged a moment later. “I dunno, I’ve got a lot of crazy powers, who knows what I can really do.” He yawned. “Get some sleep, Henry.”

The animator nodded, closing his eyes. He knew that Bendy knew the truth, that they did talk to each other in the dreams, Bendy knew, Bendy had been the one to speak first, after all. He just wasn’t going to admit to it. Henry decided to leave it at that, a silent truth between them.

He felt Bendy snuggle up against his side and he put an arm around him, holding him there. Yeah, he was sure he wasn’t going to be dealing with monsters and dead Toons in the near future, not all dreams become a reality.

END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Foreshadowing is not nice, Henry.


	3. It Could Have Happened

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve had this idea in mind for a long time, and it’s just begging to be written.
> 
> Warning: character death, nightmare, demonic ink
> 
> On with the fic!

The squeaking is what alerted Bendy that Henry was close by. He grinned as he focused his eyes on his clock, having the cute device look into the room, finding Henry in there, turning the wheels of a device on the wall. He was alone, distracted, and was going to be so easy to attack.

There had been something Bendy’s wanted to try for a while, to see just how far his demonic powers could go for him. He wanted to see if his ‘special’ ink would work on Henry, to make sure he couldn’t die. He had too many close calls, and what ink was in the human already could only help him for so long. He’d need some more, and what better place to get it than from the demonic source himself?

He morphed through the wall, keeping his inky lines in check, he wanted to be silent, a sneak attack. Not that Henry could do much damage to him anyway, but still, it’s more fun to scare than to fight. Henry froze in his attempt to grab something from the wall, slowly turning to find the Ink Demon making his grand appearance.

Bendy watched with glee through the eyes of the clock as he reached out, grabbing Henry by the throat, holding on tight so he wouldn’t escape. Just as he moved to put his inky fingers into the other’s mouth, Henry froze up, making a terrible sound, and… and…

He stopped moving, stopped struggling.

The world seemed to freeze in that moment, Bendy didn’t hear the ticking of the clock, the sound of the machinery, not even the dripping of ink.

He just stared, with his own eyes, not the clock’s, at the human he still held in his hand. This wasn’t right, the world around him was visible, why could he see, why was he looking at the old animator?

This… this moment felt so off…

**“… Henry?”**

Henry wasn’t moving, he… he wasn’t breathing… there was something wrong with him, something… something was dripping out of the corner of his mouth. It looked like blood, but it was so dark, was… was it ink..?

“Oh dear, look what you’ve done now, Bendy. You broke your toy.”

Bendy tensed up, that voice, he knew that voice anywhere…

Turning, Bendy stared at the familiar face of Joey Drew, dressed in his clean-cut clothes, sitting in his wheelchair, he looked so young, like he did the day he first turned off the machine. “I didn’t think you had it in you to kill him, but you did.”

 **“K-Kill…?”** Turning slowly, Bendy looked back at the man he still held. His grip loosened, and Henry dropped to the floor, landing in the ink puddle that had formed at Bendy’s feet. He had planned to use it in his attempt to keep Henry alive, after he gave him his ink. Henry just laid in the ink, not responding, he wasn’t doing anything… **“N-no! He can’t...! I didn’t…!”**

“Oh, but he is, and you did it.” Joey tisked, shaking his head as he looked at his dead friend. “You murdered him, Bendy. You got too cocky with your little game, and you killed the only person who could have saved you.”

“Save me…? What do you mean?” Bendy asked, his voice shaking, he sounded too much like his old self, he sounded… so small and scared, not like the Ink Demon at all. “I didn’t kill ‘em! I-I couldn’t have…!”

“But you did, Bendy.” Joey frowned, gesturing to the body. “You don’t seem to be in control of your powers like you thought. But, at least you truly have proven to me that you really are a demon like you said you are. A ruthless killer, even of a man who never actually did you any wrong.”

A cold, calm smile crossed Joey’s face. “You believed he abandoned you, hated you, and yet that was further from the truth. No one loves you more than Henry does… well, actually, I should be saying ‘did’ now, shouldn’t I? He still cared about you deeply, and was upset when I banned him from this place, ruined his animation career, stole you from him.”

 ** _“Shut up!”_** Bendy screamed, clutching his head, only to notice there was ink pouring from his arms. He gasped, pulling his hands away, black and white strings of ink followed his fingers, showing that they to were melting. **“What’s…?”**

“Seems you’re becoming unstable. Makes sense, I turned off the Ink Machine, you need to be punished, Bendy.” The director was still smiling, his eyes were wrong, so wrong, black, black, black… “Look at you, what has become of my li’l Devil Darlin’? He’s turned into a damaged, broken, imperfect excuse of his former self.”

 **“STOP!”** Bendy shouted, reaching out to strike him, to shut up the man who tormented him for years. He watched in horror as his arm dropped to the ground, with a wet, sickening splat. He was falling apart, he was… he really was unstable!

Just like the Searchers, Sammy, everyone else down here who was damaged by the ink.

He sank to his knees, globs of white and black ink dropping to the ground, creating a puddle under him. No matter how hard he concentrated, Bendy couldn’t pull himself together, he couldn’t even access his inky trails! He heard a loud, deep sigh and looked up at Joey, who stood from his chair, staring down at Bendy with a bottle in his hands.

“Well, looks like it’s back to the drawing board with you. Maybe the next one will actually be perfect, and not a mistake on the cutting room floor like you are.” He cracked open the bottle, and the Ink Demon could smell the strong scent of acetone coming from it.

 **“No! _NO!_ ”** He tried to get away, but collapsed as his other arm fell off.

Something grabbed his leg and he turned, eyes wide as he stared at the corpse of Henry, gripping tightly to his leg. The man’s eyes were wide, blank, white, and his mouth was moving.

“-ndy… Bendy…!” He struggled to say to the demon.

Bendy was frozen in fear as he watched Henry try to pull himself closer, then he felt a burning on his head, as the acetone touched him.

**“Stop! STOP! Help! Henry!”**

“Bendy! Bendy, _wake up!_ ”

Bendy’s head snapped up and all he saw was black, it was so dark, it was like being in the pipes again. He screamed again, trashing about, trying to get away from the acetone, the living corpse of his creator! But something was holding onto him tightly, he felt something brushing his head, a quiet, tired voice shushing him.

“Bendy, Bendy… shhh… calm down, it’s just me…”

It… it sounded like Henry… but no, no, Bendy killed him, he broke his neck… **“No, you’re dead, you’re dead…”** He shoved at the thing holding him, but it only held him tighter.

“Bendy, stop, I’m alive, you’re okay.” Henry winced, feeling the demon pushing again, mismatched hands shoving at his chest, hard.

Just moments ago, Henry had been woken up by a terrible pain in his chest, his heart beating too hard, and the strong scent of ink was in the air. It reminded him too much of the studio, of “Bendy”, and when he had opened his eyes, he found his walls covered in inky lines, and heard terrified whines from Bendy. There were soft, terrified pleas coming from him in a distorted voice.

It shocked Henry to find that instead of the tiny demon, sleeping soundly in his dresser drawer, Bendy’s usual sleeping spot, he instead found the curled-up form of “Bendy” on the floor. He was desperately clawing at the ink dripping from his head. It was clear that he was sleeping, having no idea that he changed his form into his Ink Demon self.

Quickly, Henry got out of bed, holding him tightly, trying to get him to wake up. Now that Bendy was awake, he seemed to be in a panicked state, something Henry, sadly, knew too much about. “Bendy, shhh…” He continued to pet his friend’s head, feeling him stop squirming, but he was still tensed up. “Can you hear me?”

There was a pause, and Bendy nodded his head. **“Henry… are you… are you really alive?”**

“Yes, I am.” He replied softly. “Do you know where you are?”

**“The… studio? Why… why is it so dark?”**

“You’re covered in ink. And no, this isn’t the studio.”

Bendy was quiet again as he tried to calm down, tried to understand that this wasn’t the studio, this wasn’t level P. This was… he sniffed, smelling the faint scent of paint, of laundry soap. He smelled the cool night air, from the open window, near his little bed. He also smelled the strong scent of ink in the air.

 **“I’m in the bedroom, I’m… I’m home, we’re in our room…”** He felt something being pressed into his hand, and he gave it a squeeze, hearing a little squeak. **“This is my Bendy plush.”** He mumbled, taking everything in carefully.

Henry let out a sigh. “Yes, it is, and you’re right, we’re in the bedroom. Do you know what happened? What’s goin’ on? Do you… know how you look right now?”

 **“…”** Bendy touched at his face, feeling ink. He tried to push at it, get it out of his eyes, but found he couldn’t. He then noticed that he had an interesting number of fingers on his hand when he wiggled them. **“N-No… no! Nononononono, H-Henry, what happened?! Why am I-”** He was silenced by a finger to his mouth.

“Calm down, you’re gonna have another panic attack.” Henry took the plush toy from Bendy and moved to stand up, pulling Bendy to his feet. He forgot how tall the demon was in this form, it was a little jarring when just hours before the imp was only up to his thigh or so. “Now, I’m gonna need you to settle down, we’re gonna go into the kitchen, and we’re gonna get you cleaned up, okay?”

When he got a small nod from Bendy, he carefully walked him out of the room. The lines still trailed after Bendy, not as bad as before, but it still made Henry’s chest hurt. “Bendy… do you mind, ya know, not havin’ those inky lines out?”

Bendy winced, and made them vanish, giving Henry some much-needed relief. He walked Bendy down the stairs, carefully, before bringing him into the kitchen. He set down the plush toy on the table after he turned on the lights, then told Bendy to use the toy for his eyes.

The Ink Demon did as he was told, letting the toy be his eyes. He frowned when he saw that, yes, he was in his other form, and it looked so much worse than normal. He was leaking so much ink…

Picking up the toy, he used it to look at Henry, watching him as he put milk into a pan, then set it on the stove to heat up. He pulled out a box from the cabinet that Bendy was familiar with, the graham cracker box. Bendy liked those, they were sweet, and something Henry let him snack on whenever. He watched the human put the box down on the table before he told Bendy to sit.

Bendy did so, frowning. It was silent in the kitchen as Henry heated the milk, then poured it into two cups. He set one down in front of Bendy, then himself, before he sat down. “Talk to me, what happened that scared you enough to turn you into this?”

The Toon didn’t want to talk, but he knew that Henry could help him. With a heavy sigh, he took the box of crackers and pulled one out, breaking off a chunk to attempt to eat. He opened his mouth, revealing the terrifying set of teeth he always kept clenched shut, and took a bite. Henry wasn’t even phased, he just drank his glass of warm milk slowly.

After he finished his bite, and took a drink of milk, the demon ‘looked’ at Henry. **“I had a dream. Ya know, when I killed ya in that sneak attack?”**

“Yes, I remember.”

 **“… I dreamt that, well… it didn’t end like it should have. Before I gave ya some of mah ink, I… I…”** His hands shook, his ink was running again, but he felt Henry put a hand on his own, to try and ground him. **“… I killed ya, an’ you didn’t come back. An’ then Joey was there, tellin’ me it was mah fault, an’ he told me that my revenge was pointless cause I really had no reason to hate ya then! He had lied, he lied, an’ I killed the only guy who could save me…”**

Henry stared at him before letting out a sigh. “Bendy, it was just a nightmare. I… I know they can seem real, believe me, I’ve had too many alternate versions of my memories of war as bad dreams. I’ve seen fallen friends rise from the dead, blaming me for their deaths, I’ve seen Joey being the one behind the barrel of a gun, ready to kill me, telling me this is exactly why he told me not to go. I’ve… you know of the nightmare, where I saw you, Boris, and Alice, scared and destroyed, just like in the studio.”

He looked at his cup before looking back at Bendy. “I’ve had dreams of us in the studio, and you weren’t the Bendy you are now or the Bendy you were there. You were… well… you were mindless, and you just killed me, without a single care.”

Bendy almost cracked his glass with how tightly he was squeezing it. **“I would never… I don’t wanna hurt ya. Never again.”**

Henry smiled a little at those words. “And I know you mean that. It’s okay, it’s just a nightmare, we’re at home, ain’t nothin’ to worry about here. Now, come on, let’s get you back to normal.”

 **“I dunno if it’s as simple as it was in the studio, Henry.”** Bendy sighed, eating another cracker. **“I… I never thought I’d be… this again. I dunno what to do, I thought I was perfect again…”**

“Nothing is perfect.”

**“Baloney, I have to be perfect.”**

“No, you don’t.” Henry snapped. “Joey always believed that bullshit, but you know what? I know the truth, there is nothing perfect in the world, and that’s fine. You just enjoy things as they are, as close to perfect as they can be. You were never always on-model, different animators have slightly different styles. I could always tell who was animating you guys from what little touches they added in, what was their own style. You’re based on my original style, my version of you, yes, but I’m sure that you are your own Bendy, your own style.”

Bendy tilted his head up, ‘looking’ in Henry’s direction. **“But… I want to look like the Bendy you designed… I wanna look like me.”**

“Focus on yourself, on how you usually look, okay? Just… concentrate.”

The demon whined, trying to focus, trying to think of how he normally looked, but it was hard, not as easy as he had hoped. His thoughts were buzzing too hard in his head for him to really focus, so he just growled, flicking Henry in the forehead. **“You do it.”**

“Ow! You li’l punk ass-!” Henry hissed, rubbing the spot on his forehead. “No, just for that, I’m lettin’ you do this.” He moved to get up, but he saw a panicked look cross Bendy’s face and he sighed, staying seated. “Bud, you gotta calm down.”

**“It’s hard…”**

“I know it is, but look, I’m here for ya, okay? I’ll sit with you all night if I have to, until you’re back to your normal model, alright?”

 **“… Promise?”** Bendy mumbled, getting a nod from Henry. He breathed through his teeth, trying to focus on himself, on his normal, on-model form. The demon gripped at the table, thinking about his on-model design, trying to make himself smaller, cuter, less… demonic. But it was hard, all he could think about was what Joey had said in his dream…

_But, at least you truly have proven to me that you really are a demon like you said you are. A ruthless killer, even of a man who never actually did you any wrong._

Henry clutched at his shirt, feeling his heart beat too hard, too fast, as the kitchen grew dark with the inky lines of his cartoon. “Bendy, Bendy… calm down…” He hissed, trying to steady himself.

This seemed to catch Bendy’s attention, and he snapped his head up, ‘looking’ at Henry, before the lines vanished. **“I-I’m sorry…! Oh jeez an’ crackers… all I’m doin’ is hurtin’ ya again…”**

“It’s… it’s fine.” Henry sighed, trying to relax, trying to breathe correctly.

 **“No, it’s not!”** Bendy slammed his hands down on the table as he stood up. His body shook as ink pooled under his hands. **“It’s not… I don’t… I don’t wanna hurt ya anymore, Henry…”**

The animator shook his head. “Bendy, I know you regret what happened in the studio, we’ve all done things that we wish he had never done. Believe me, I know…” The war, the studio, there were so many things that Henry wish he could go back and fix, but he knew he couldn’t and he just had to move on. “Bendy, you need to accept you made mistakes, you did terrible things, guilt will always be there, but you can do better things to help ease it.”

The Toon stood there, his head bowed as he took in Henry’s words, before he sat down again. He let out a deep sigh as he laid his head on the table. Henry watched him carefully, Bendy just sat there, his body leaking more and more ink. The human patiently waited, this reminded him much of what happened in the studio, but it was much… different as well.

Ink came off in great globs, splashing on the floor as Bendy seemed to shrink. His horns moved towards the center of his head slowly, his right hand, which rested on the table, lost its extra digit and seemed to change in size, becoming white and much more glove-like.

At least this was happening faster than what happened in the studio.

They sat in relative silence for a while, with Henry watching Bendy as he sipped his cooling milk, before Bendy finally lifted his head.

His right eye was completely normal, but his left appeared as his demonic eye. He tried to smile. “How… do I look?”

“Better, your eye is a little…” He gestured at his own face and the Toon reached up, rubbing at his left eye. When he pulled his hand away, it was pie-cut again.

“I feel normal again.” He spoke softly. “I thought about whatcha said, an’, well, it helped a lot to think about all the good stuff that’s happened since we left. An’ even of the stuff before the studio went crazy.”

“Good. Ready for bed?” Henry asked, standing up from the table. Silently, Bendy held out his arms for Henry to pick him up. Sure, the demon had his pride, but there were those moments… where he needed to be held and carried by his creator.

Quietly, Henry picked him up, taking note that there was not a single drop of ink on the floor, chair, or table. He didn’t quiet when the ink vanished, or where it even was, it was just… a Toon thing, he supposed.

Henry carried Bendy back to bed and placed him down in his own, knowing that Bendy would eventually sneak in, as he always did. “I’ll be right back, I’m gonna straighten up the kitchen. Sleep.”

There was no protest, Bendy just closed his eyes and pulled the blanket over himself. Henry let out a soft sigh and headed back to the kitchen, only to pause when he noticed Alice and Boris peaking out of their bedroom door. They had concerned looks on their faces and Henry put a finger to his lips.

“Don’t let him know you know.” He whispered as softly as he could so Bendy wouldn’t hear.

The two cartoons just nodded, both looking worried. “He’s okay, just a nightmare, he’ll be alright.”

“Are you sure?” Alice asked softly.

“Very sure.” He smiled. “Now, back to bed, it’s late and we all need sleep.”

“Night Henry.” Boris gave a small smile before retreating into the room for his hammock. Alice said good night as well, slipping back inside and closing the door. The human sighed softly, he was gonna be exhausted in the morning, but… well… sometimes you just gotta deal with it when your friend needs your help.

END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t have a set plan for what happens with ‘Bendy’ returning to normal Bendy in this au, but I figure he melts like what I did in this. But how he goes about doing it originally? Still working on that.
> 
> Originally this was gonna be chapter four, but I decided to post it up now cause I really like this one. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! Leave a comment and kudos! I also take suggestions for post-escape ideas!


	4. A New Start

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter four, where it continues off of where chapter one ended.
> 
> Sorry for the lack of updates lately for this story, and the series in general. Some stuff in the fandom has sorta… made me uncomfortable, and a little more than annoyed, but I digress, that really shouldn’t stop me from writing. Also, I’ve been working on some stuff for one of the other fandoms I’m in and that’s been consuming my time, same with my final semester of school, getting over my sickness, depression… but that’s normal. Also, just celebrated my birthday last week! I did want to post this chapter up on the 14th, my birthday, but I was busy, and I ended up changing up a lot in this chapter, so that's why it's being posted a week later.
> 
> Originally, this was chapter three, but it ended up becoming chapter four cause I wanted to post Bendy’s nightmare up first.
> 
> Warning: not much, just Bendy’s smart mouth and depressing topics from the studio, along with references to previously written one-shots for Pulling Strings, and hints to events that haven’t been seen. So, I guess spoilers is a warning? I kept things super vague though, considering that I am not sure how well my ideas will pan out, considering that chapters four and five are not out yet as of the writing of this chapter.
> 
> On with the fic!

The five-hour drive was long, but at the very least it was nicer than when Henry drove down to the studio. It was much… louder, to say the least though.

Boris and Alice happily talked to one another about everything they saw out the windows of the truck, while Bendy toyed with the radio, until Henry made him stick with one station. Seeing as they had left early in the morning, the roads had been clear of most heavy traffic, but nearing the end, Henry had to tell the Toons to lay low when passing taller vehicles, where people could look down into the truck and see them.

The Toons understood the worry, the world wasn’t quite ready for living cartoons just yet.

Henry let out a soft sigh when he entered his neighborhood, a small part of the city he lived in, close to the inner city. It was a work day, most people were at their jobs, kids were at school, so no one would really notice him going inside his apartment building with three black and white characters, right?

“Here we are.” He parked his truck in the back lot of the building and Bendy gave the building a once over before turning to Henry.

“It looks like a dump.”

“We just came back from a studio that was falling apart at the seams, this is a freakin’ palace compared to that place.” The animator rolled his eyes and got out, grabbing his suitcase. He looked around quickly before ushering the Toons out, making them head for the back door of the building. Once he locked up his truck, Henry joined them, using a key to unlock the building’s door. “Up the stairs, I’m on the fifth floor.”

The four of them made their way up the stairs quickly and they found several doors on the fifth floor. Henry motioned for them to follow him to one of the last ones, and another key opened this door.

Three sets of black eyes stared past Henry into the apartment, and their owners made faces.

The place was… a mess, to say the least.

There was trash scattered about, mainly newspapers and wrappers, dishes and the like. Laundry was in places, the kitchen needed to be cleaned as well. Bendy stepped inside first, hearing Henry sigh and make a comment that he wasn’t expecting guests. “Ya should always expect guests, ol’ man. Dang, dis place is a real… well… it’s a fixer-upper. Do we really gotta live here?”

Alice was quick to slap him across the back of his head, making it spin around like a kid slapping a classroom globe. “Yes, Bendy, we’re going to live here because Henry offered. Be nice, you have been nothing but trouble for him and he’s kind enough to give you a home.”

Bendy quickly grabbed ahold of his head, his eyes were spirals for a moment before a quick shake of his head fixed that. He pouted and sighed, knowing the fallen angel was right. “Yeah, yeah, sorry Henry, it’s just… you live like this?” He didn’t want to comment that he already knew this for a fact, he’s got a set of eyes in this place.

And it’s not like he should talk! His little room in the studio was a mess, ink everywhere, a real fixer-upper!

“My mind is occupied on other things rather than cleaning and making this place presentable for guests I never have over.” Henry replied as he started to take off his ruined shoes. He needed to do something about them, at least the ink dried up, so his clean pants didn’t get ruined.

Boris stepped past him to take a look around, before turning with a smile. “We’ll help ya clean it all up, Henry! We’ve got lots of time an’ stuff, I’m sure we can make it shine!”

Henry looked at the wolf with a small smile. “Thanks, but right now we should just relax a bit, it was a long drive. I’ll make us something to eat for lunch. Just… make yourselves at home, okay?” He said before going to another part of the apartment, putting his suitcase into a room.

Alice moved to sit on the couch, curiously picking up a book off the coffee table. Boris looked around the living room, spotting the old TV in the corner and turned it on. Bendy decided to follow Henry into the kitchen when he exited his bedroom, watching the animator as he looked around his kitchen for something to make. He pulled a can out of a cabinet and made a face. “Soup… would be a bad idea, yeah?” He asked, looking at the Toon.

“As long as it ain’t bacon. Don’t get me wrong, love da stuff, but thirty years of it? Let me have a break for… about a week, then I’ll get back to it.” Bendy grinned as he jumped onto the counter with ease, his legs dangling over the edge as he sat down.

“It’s not bacon, it’s chicken noodle. I have to go to the store later, I don’t have a whole lot to work with here for four people.”

“Technically, one human, an angel, a wolf, an’ an adorable, darlin’ devil.” Bendy had a huge grin on his face as he batted his eyes quickly, suddenly having long, cartoony eyelashes.

Henry just gave him a look. “Smartass.” He pulled out another can and got to work putting them into a pan to start cooking.

Bendy watched him for a moment before he sat there, looking out at the entrance to the kitchen. Curiously, Bendy wondered if he still had… well… a connection, with the drawing Henry did, the drawing that let him know Henry was coming back to the studio in the first place.

His eyes widened a little as he felt the connection click, and he could see into the living room, seeing his friends sitting there, one reading, the other watching the television.

“-dy? Bendy?” There was a loud snapping by his non-existent ear and Bendy blinked, turning his attention to Henry. “You okay? You looked like you were spacing out on me.”

“Oh, sorry, ol’ man, I was just… when I was da Ink Demon, I didn’t have eyes. Well, I had ‘em, but they didn’t work, so I had to use pictures of me an’ stuff to see. I was tryin’ to see if I could still connect with da drawin’ ya did of me before you came back.”

“… How did you know that I drew you?”

“You used my special ink.” Bendy replied, looking at his feet. “I can always connect with anythin’ dat’s got my ink in it. Even you.” He looked up at Henry when he said this. “You ingested a lot of da ink, from all da falls, an’ fights, an’ me bringin’ ya back to life. Cause of it, we have some sorta… connection, I guess? Hard to explain, even I dunno how it works.”

Henry looked uncomfortable with hearing this. “Can you take me over?”

“No.”

“Alright then.” He visibly relaxed, but then paused. “Wait a second, if you’re connected with that drawing, why didn’t you talk to me through it?” Henry had a suspicion about Bendy speaking to him in a variety of ways, like in his dreams.

“I can’t, not with still images. Cartoons I can, cause they move! Same with flip books, an’, oddly enough, da cutouts! Takes some work to get ‘em to move, not like my ‘special’ ones, like da one in da closet dat scared ya good! Wait, no, I couldn’t make da normal ones talk, move, but not talk, only da ones I set up to freak Joey out.” Bendy explained. “But drawin’s on paper? Doesn’t work, can’t do anythin’ but watch. If I could talk with ‘em, I would have warned people about what Joey was doin’…” He sighed, looking at his shoes, his perfectly normal shoes, covering his perfectly normal feet. One not backwards, the other not split almost in two.

Henry quietly stirred the pan of soup as he glanced over at Bendy. “You still tried your best, didn’t you?”

“No one really believed me, ‘cept Norman. An’…” He clenched his hands, a drip of ink running down the side of his face. “An’ he… he paid da price…”

Bendy gasped, feeling a rough, yet gentle, hand on his head, rubbing between his horns. He looked up at Henry, seeing the concern on the human’s face. “Don’t blame yourself, Joey ruined a lot of people down there, he would have hurt Norman anyway, even if he didn’t believe you.”

“… It still hurts.”

“I know it does…” Henry knew he would never forget what happened down in level 14, when he performed a mercy killing on Norman, who pretty much begged him to die, to have his pain end. He could see the faded ink on his hands and arms from the studio, knowing that Norman’s was mixed with it, so much was mixed in that ink…

Even though he helped Norman, Henry would forever have the inky blood of his friend on his hands… no amount of scrubbing or wishful denial of the ink could make him forget about the feeling of it on his skin. It was like the blood of his fallen comrades in the war, it may not be seen on his skin, but he would always see it in his mind’s eye.

“I saw it. Whatcha did in there…” Bendy whispered, feeling Henry’s hand still. “I don’t blame ya for what happened, Norman wanted to die, an’… as hard as I tried, I couldn’t give ‘em da sweet release of death. I was too scared… but I ain’t mad at you for doin’ it, I saw ya cryin’. Henry, you were upset, a murderer would never cry over killin’ his friend when he begged ya for it.”

Henry sighed softly, nodding. “It’s gonna hurt for a long while, bud, but thank you.”

“No problem, we’ve both got a lot on our plates after everythin’.”

“Same with them.” Henry glanced at the entrance to the kitchen. “But we’re all here for one another, no matter what.” And he meant that, even with what happened with all of them, they had each other’s backs.

Bendy frowned a little, rubbing at the back of his head. “Think they’ll ever really forgive me?”

“They will, it’s gonna take them a while to get use to why you were the Ink Demon, I’m sure.”

“… Will you ever forgive me?”

“I have, and I will. Let’s leave it at that, punk, things are a bit complicated.” Even though he understood Bendy’s reasonings, even though he knew what happened to the demon, Henry wasn’t going to forgive him for everything so quickly. Some stuff will take time before he completely forgives the devil darlin’ for what happened in the studio.

Silence fell over them, but both were lost in similar thoughts. Bendy understood why Henry said what he did, considering how their relationship was back in the studio this week. Bendy’s memories were still returning to how they should be when concerning the animator, the spell Joey placed on him practically wiped clean from his ink, but that meant that the demon would have to put the shattered memories back together again to remember Henry as he should be. He knows how Henry is, who he is, and what sort of person he is to Bendy, but there’s still… still that remnant of Joey’s influence on the demon’s thoughts that was imbedded in his mind for so many years.

A little part of him still considered the human a traitor, but he knew it wasn’t true. He knew the truth, why Henry left, why he never came back, he knew that Henry still cared about him, but… Bendy was still scared that Henry would leave him again. He was scared that what he did as the Ink Demon, as “Bendy”, would keep Henry at a distance, and make the man regret taking him home.

But Henry seemed fine with Bendy, he embraced the imp when he returned to normal, back to his Toon form, hell, he even shed a few tears. He had listened to him in the dreams, had even cracked a few jokes and such. He still believed that Bendy was worth saving, even though the human had been killed by him.

And Bendy knew that Henry had accepted his ‘help’ in the studio. The recorders scattered in the right places, the hints on the walls he himself wrote, and what Bendy did to help Henry through the studio. Turn a valve here, break down some boards that blocked a door, kill ink creatures to give Henry some relief.

Let him sleep peacefully in the station, give him the recording of his voice in the flooded room, comfort him when he had his stress-related breakdown after hearing his voice from thirty years ago…

Bendy glanced at Henry, seeing him removing the pan from the burner it was on to a different one. Henry paused, looking over at Bendy. “You need somethin’?” He asked as he reached into a cabinet, grabbing some bowls.

“Uhh… I dunno. I guess I just wanted to ask…” He didn’t get to finish his question when he saw Boris come in, asking what that delicious smell was. Alice soon joined him as Henry placed the soup-filled bowls onto the small table in his kitchen, and Bendy decided to just forget about the question and go eat.

Asking if Henry was thankful for everything Bendy did in the studio that wasn’t to torment him but actually help him, remind him that Bendy still unconsciously cared, could be dealt with at a different time.

\--

After lunch, Henry spoke with the Toons, telling them that he was going to the store to get food for the four of them. He left Alice in charge, knowing that she’d be the one to not answer the phone or the door, to not go outside, to not open the blinds for the windows, and to stay out of trouble.

Luckily for Henry, the trio had behaved themselves, except that Bendy had gotten nosy and dug around his bookshelf and took out a bunch of books to look over. He also played around on Henry’s desk, but that was to be expected, Bendy is a curious demon. After all, Henry made him that way.

After putting away the groceries, Henry spoke with the Toons, setting some ground rules for the time being. He worked during the weekdays and would be gone from eight thirty to five. He told them that because of their unusual circumstances, it might take a bit for them to be able to show themselves to the public. Who knows what people would do, seeing living cartoons running around, he didn’t want any harm to come to them.

They were free to do whatever they wanted in the apartment, as long as they didn’t break anything and kept out of trouble. If he had to, he’d get them things to keep them entertained.

After all that, the animator gave them a tour of the apartment, showing them that he had a bathroom, a coat closet, and two bedrooms on the other side of the apartment. The main area was just the living room, the guest bathroom, and the kitchen, along with a small pantry.

One bedroom was very basic, a simple cot, closet, and a dresser were inside, along with a small side table with a lamp. The other bedroom was Henry’s, with a larger bed, and minimal furnishing, but there was more to it than the guest room. Bendy was quick to take notice to a shelf on a wall, just out of reach of his grabby hands. There was a Bendy plushie sitting up on the shelf, smiling down at them, along with a few framed sketches.

They didn’t think much of the rooms after that, at least, not until it was time for bed later in the evening.

Henry realized that he had only two beds, and three new roommates. “How… are we going to do this?” He pondered, looking down the hall from where he stood.

“I could sleep on da floor, an’ Alice an’ Bendy can have da cot!” Boris spoke up, but Henry shook his head.

“That’s nice of you, but I don’t want you sleepin’ on the floor. Maybe I can make you a hammock or somethin’… or you could take the couch?”

“Hey yeah! Dat works just fine wit’ me!”

“And… Bendy and I?” Alice frowned. “Do we have to share a bed?” She ignored the pointed look Bendy gave her, until he walked past her and went into Henry’s room.

She blinked, putting her hands on her hips. “Oh no! You are NOT taking Henry’s bed!”

A loud snort came from the room before the light for it flicked on, Bendy stood in the doorway with a pout on his face. “I ain’t stealin’ his bed! I’m stealin’ one of da drawers in his room!”

Henry raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean exactly what I said! I’m stealin’ one of da drawers in yer room!”

Boris leaned over to Henry, stage whispering close to his ear. “When we were all livin’ in da studio, before everythin’ went bonkers, Bendy use ta sleep in drawers cause he could fit in ‘em.” Then he actually whispered this next part so only Henry could really hear him. “Bendy can’t sleep well in open spaces on a count a’ bein’ trapped in da pipes so many times. He told me dat he hates how comfortable he is, all sleepin’ in cramped spaces an’ stuff. Just let ‘em have it for a bit, yeah?”

“I see…” Henry frowned before looking into his room, seeing Bendy tossing clothing out of the bottom drawer of the dresser. “Oh, come on, don’t make a mess of my stuff.”

The demon stopped, looking over his shoulder at Henry. He dropped the pair of jeans he had been holding, before turning to him. “Well, I ain’t gonna sleep on your clothes! You got a blanket or somethin’ for me to sleep on?”

Henry just sighed loudly and went to go get him one. He grabbed a few extras, along with another pillow he had set in a closet for when his brother would come visit and demand to have two on the cot. He set up a blanket and pillow on the couch and gave Alice an extra blanket, if she needed it. He tossed Bendy three blankets, one for padding, one for sleeping under, and the other as a make-shift pillow. Looks like the animator was gonna have to go shopping again…

“Alright, everyone to bed. I need to go to work tomorrow cause I might as well do that since my trip to the studio was shorter than expected.” Henry huffed, looking at the three Toons.

Boris frowned, tilting his head. “But Henry, you should probably take a day off ta relax. You were in one heck of a pickle of a situation, don’t ya think you should… you know… take it easy?”

“Especially with all the fighting you did.” Alice added on. “You’re human, and a bit old, you need to take it easy! I’m sure you’re more bruised up than a dropped banana right now!”

Henry wanted to argue, hell, he felt alright, just with dull aches in his joints.

And his feet hurt like hell.

And he was still exhausted.

And his chest still hurt in places from all of his fights he got into, especially with the one with the giant Searcher in the factory…

He looked at Bendy, clearly seeing guilt on the other’s face, and he sighed loudly. “Alright. I’ll take it easy tomorrow. But I do need to go to work, gotta pay the bills somehow, ya know? Now. Bed.”

Boris made his way to the couch, walking around in a circle three times, before plopping down with a happy sigh. A giggle came from Alice and Bendy as they watched this. Henry rolled his eyes, having seen Boris do this before when they were in the safe room. “Good night, Boris.”

“Night, Henry!” Boris happily said as he pulled the blanket over himself.

Henry nodded and looked at Alice, watching her go into the guest room. “Good night, Henry. Thank you.” She smiled at him before she closed the door, after hearing him say good night as well. He looked down at Bendy, who only glanced up at him for a moment, before hurrying into the bedroom and got himself into the drawer.

The animator smiled a little before going to get something out of one of the other drawers about the Toon. He’d worry about cleaning up the mess Bendy made in the morning cause right now he felt exhaustion kicking him in the ass. “I’ll be right back, I’m gonna get dressed for the night.”

“Alright.” Bendy replied, looking up at him as he snuggled under the blanket. Henry gave a nod as he headed for the bathroom, coming out a few minutes later in shorts and a shirt, heading for his bed. He noticed something was… different in the room, and it took a moment for him to realize that something was missing.

On his nightstand had sat a little plush Bendy he had taken from the studio, he had set it down when he put his suitcase away earlier. It was the plushie he had taken with him from the factory, after he had napped in the toy factory’s Little Miracle Station. He had just put it in his pocket and taken it with him through the rest of the factory, he was surprised it had survived everything with him.

Henry had set it down when he quickly unpacked, didn’t give it much thought, but now it’s gone.

He looked over, noticing that Bendy had the little Bendy plush, hugging it close as he seemed to be asleep. Henry smiled slightly as he got himself in bed, feeling ready to just pass out from everything.

He slept for a while, until he felt something cold pressing against his bare arm, and he jumped awake. Henry let out a small gasp, fuck! Was it a Searcher?! W-wait, no, this was his bedroom, this is… what just touched him? There was a small grunt, and a tiny, muted squeak. Lifting the comforter, Henry saw that Bendy was pressed against his arm, curled up in a tight ball, holding the plush toy. “Bendy…?”

The devil looked up at him, blinking. “Uhh… I can explain?”

“… Okay, explain.”

“… I don’t wanna.” Bendy mumbled. “Can I just… can I sleep with you tonight?”

Henry looked at him with a raised eyebrow. He couldn’t really say no to that face, well, except in the studio, when those damn cutouts were just blankly looking at him… but anyway, Henry dropped the blanket back down and nodded, even though Bendy didn’t see. “Fine, but just for tonight, got it, punk?”

“Got it, ol’ man.” A gloved hand slipped out from under the blanket, giving him an OK-hand gesture.

“Alright, good night, Bendy.”

“Night, Henry.” Bendy replied. It was quiet for a moment, before Henry heard a whispered ‘thank you’ from the Toon and the human closed his eyes, a small smile on his lips.

END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do have it planned that Henry and crew will move into a bigger house, because there isn’t much room for all three of them in the apartment. I know they’re living in the house in chapter three, but I’ll get around to the move, which will be related to a story I’ve been wanting to write for a long time for this series. Let’s just say it has something to do with Norman, and we’ll leave it at that.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Leave a kudos and a comment, they help me keep working on this series! :D If you have any suggestions of things you'd like to see, don't be afraid to ask. I'm accepting ideas.


	5. Not Just a Demon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made mention of this in Home for the Holidays, when Henry explained to his brother what happened when Bendy was forced onto holy ground without his consent.
> 
> So, this is the one-shot for that event.
> 
> Warning: body horror (well, Bendy ends up looking like the original "Bendy" model, but...), insults thrown at Bendy
> 
> This takes place maybe two months or so after Henry moves himself and the Toons out of his apartment and into a little house in a neighborhood in the city. It takes place after another one-shot I’ve got in the works, but we’ll get to that in the near future. I know in the holiday fanfic I said that this took place a few weeks after the Toons left the studio, but… this probably takes place maybe three months after that? So I guess it’s more than a few weeks, but who cares.
> 
> On with the fic!

Bendy snickered at he tried to keep himself as hidden as possible, but it was hard to hide his giggles when he knew that he was gonna be the last one found, meaning he didn’t have to count!

He was out in the neighborhood’s park with some of the children, playing hide ‘n seek. It was a lovely, spring day, and Bendy had begged Henry to let him spend the day outside with his friends, heck, they even joined in on trying to give the old animator puppy eyes.

Henry folded faster than Superman on laundry day (Bendy’s own words on the matter) and let him go play. He told him to stay in the park and neighborhood, and not to go off with strangers or let anything happen to the kids. Bendy promised and happily ran off to go play while his creator stayed back at the house.

It’s been over an hour or so since the kids and Toon went to the park and after a fun game of tag, they settled on hide ‘n seek, Bendy’s favorite! He liked this game cause he was really good as hiding, toon physics were a big help when he could fit into such small spaces, like the hole in the tree he was in.

“Found you, Bendy!” A boy shouted, grinning as he heard the snickers of his friend.

Bendy pouted but put on a big grin as he poked his head out of the hole with a loud pop. “Heh, that you did, Norman!” He smiled at the boy as he got himself out and dropped to the ground. “Best hidin’ spot goes to me again, yeah?”

“You always have the best! Next time you’re gonna be the seeker!”

“Nope! Da seeker’s always da first found! Who was it dis time?”

“Cassandra.” Norman pointed over to his little sister, who was with the other three kids in the little group.

The curly haired girl huffed, crossing her arms. “You cheated, Norman! You saw where I went!”

“Nope, you’re just bad at this game!”

“Bet I’ll find you first!”

“Ha! I’m gonna have the best hiding spot, even better than Bendy!” The eldest child of the group grinned, and a boy with big glasses laughed at this.

“Good luck with that! Bendy’s the best!” John grinned, pointing at the Toon. “Remember last time when you hid in that glass bottle from your soda? Took us forever to find you!”

Bendy laughed, nodding. “Dat was a good one, ‘til I came out sticky an’ Henry had to throw me in da bath!” It was a super quick bath, since Bendy discovered that him and a lot of water don’t mix well.

Heck, he was with John and their friend Romeo when they got caught in a rain storm and Bendy lost a lot of ink. Poor Henry had worked tirelessly to fix all of the damage done to Bendy with a pen and a steady hand.

“Come on, let’s start up the next game!” Molly shouted, she wanted to play another round before she had to go home, seeing as her mom would need to put her baby sister down for a nap soon and wouldn’t leave the little girl alone in the park, even with her friends.

Cassandra nodded, ordering everyone to go hide while she covered her eyes and began to count. The group scattered quickly, and everyone went to go find a good spot. Bendy giggled and looked around, trying to see if there was a better spot this time. He spotted a shed over by the fenced up local pool and decided he’d go hide over there! All hiding spots had to be in the park, right? And this was in the park!

As he ran over with a big grin on his face, he didn’t notice that someone had been watching him. As he got to the shed, he found that it was locked, but that was okay, he could still hide here, facing the pool, it might take Cassandra a bit to find him all the way over here! He giggled a little, sitting down to patiently wait for her to find him.

He hummed a little tune to himself from his old show when he noticed a shadow looming over him. His horns twitched and Bendy blinked. Sudden instinct made him tense up as he felt his ink slick up a bit, just… in case something was to happen, he could release his lines, even though he didn’t like that option, especially in public. Slowly, he glanced up, staring up at the stranger.

There was a woman standing over him, she looked to be middle-aged, with a stern, cold look in her eyes. She had a rosary in her hand as she looked down at Bendy. “So, you’re that demon people here keep talking about.”

“W-Well, actually, I am a demon, yes, but I’mma cartoon first, ma’am…!” Bendy replied, putting on a grin, but it was forced. She was making him uncomfortable with that cold glare, and he could sense the blessed beads. With what little experience he had with touching blessed and holy objects, he knew he didn’t like the sensation or even the mere presence. The local reverend, who was Molly’s father, was really nice to him, since Bendy had helped his daughter out a few times, he sometimes gave off a sense that made Bendy feel like parts of his body were tingling in a bad way.

He had been wary of the cross the man wore, and they never touched, just in case, but Reverend Marsh was sweet and didn’t do anything to hurt Bendy. There were people in the neighborhood who didn’t like him, he knew this, a demon was not a well-liked character, even if he was from a cartoon. The imp was aware of the looks and comments, even of the stuff said about Alice and Boris, especially of the things said about and to Henry…

Now that Bendy thought about it, he recognized this lady! He’d seen her a few times, giving mean looks to Henry at the supermarket, or telling the kids to stay away from the Toon, even though they never listened.

But she’s never actually approached Bendy before, but now that she was doing it…

He tried to move away from her, to run back to his friends, but she was quick and grabbed onto his wrist. He gasped, feeling her grip him tightly. “L-Let go…!” He felt something on his skin, like when his foot would fall asleep, and it hurt! He was quick to notice the hand that grabbed him was also the one that was clutching the rosary beads.

He could smell it, burning ink, she was burning him! “P-please stop..! Your hurtin’ me!”

“Good, that means that God is working His powers on you, demon. Come along, I doubt those will be enough to remove you from this town.” She snapped, yanking on his arm, drops of melted ink flew about as he stumbled forward.

Bendy struggled, trying to fight back, but he was scared. His arm hurt, he could feel it go up towards his shoulder. He remembered pain like this, when he had gotten hurt the first time by Joey, when the machine was first turned off….! He froze up, panicking at the memory, and he went silent as she dragged him towards somewhere. His mind was flipping out, all he could think of was that she was either going literally remove him from the city, or it would be like what happened with the Ink Machine going off and he’d be trapped in a situation where he could die.

He was so scared he couldn’t even scream.

\--

“Bendy!” Cassandra called out, he was, once again, the last one hiding! And Molly had to go home, and she wanted to say good bye to the devil darlin’, but where was he? She frowned as she walked around, before something caught her eye. It was the shed by the pool, and on the sidewalk and grass by it was spots of black stuff.

She noticed drops of it leading away and she gasped, was this from Bendy?! Oh no, oh no…!

“Norman! Norman! Come quick, something happened to Bendy!” She screamed as she waved her arms about. Her brother and their friends ran over quickly, and she showed them the black liquid, it had to be his ink!

“We gotta tell Mr. Henry!” John yelped. “He’ll know what to do!”

“Let’s go get him!” Norman shouted as he turned, running in the direction of the Ross residence.

It didn’t take the group of kids long to reach Henry’s home, finding the man outside, washing his car as Alice sat just out of distance of the water, in the middle of chatting with him when she spotted the group. She smiled at them, but the look of her face quickly turned into a deep, concerned frown when she saw the scared and worried expressions on their faces.

And then she noticed Bendy wasn’t with them.

“Kids, what’s wrong?” She asked, catching Henry’s attention. “Where’s Bendy? Is he okay?”

“Alice, Mr. Henry! We can’t find Bendy!” Romeo spoke up. “Cassandra found black stuff on the grass by the pool and we think Bendy’s in trouble!”

Henry quickly shut off the water for the hose and looked at the group. “You kids go home, we’ll go find Bendy, okay? We’ll let you know what happens. Come on, Alice.” He reached out a hand to her and she took it.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure he’s fine.” Alice tried to smile. “He always gets into some kind of situation but turns out fine in the end…!”

The kids still looked worried, but decided to do what Henry said and head home, just in case…

Henry and Alice quickly made their way to the park, heading for the pool. Alice let out a small squeak, seeing the black globs still on the ground. She dipped her finger into it and looked at it. “It’s ink… it’s special ink… Henry, we gotta find him! C-Can’t you track him down or something?! You and Bendy share a literal bond, don’t you? Can you sense him? He can sense you… remember when you had the flu and he knew before you even did?! Or, well, how he could sense if you were in trouble in the studio?”

The human frowned, looking down at his angel companion in confusion, before getting what she meant. Henry didn’t really think much of the concept that he and Bendy could have a ‘bond’ outside of friends, family, and creator and creation. He didn’t know if he and Bendy really did had a bond from the ink he had consumed in the studio, outside of dreams where they could communicate, and the fact that Bendy could sense Henry from it. Well, sometimes Bendy could, unless if he was lying.

But…

The idea didn’t seem farfetched, after everything he had seen and dealt with months ago in the old studio, so might as well give this idea the benefit of the doubt…

He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate, or at least focus on what could have actually happened. Why is Bendy missing? Why is there ink on the ground? What could have happened? Uhg, his head was hurting…

He looked at the direction the drops of ink went, and he noticed they were heading right, down the road. What was down that way? He knew it led to the elementary school, to a few small shops, more houses, and the chu-

“SHIT!” Henry tensed up, it had to be the church, that’s what happened, right? Bendy was taken there? Why else would he be taken that way! He froze, feeling uncomfortable suddenly, almost… like he was too warm, was it from his sudden panic and worry? He shook his head, feeling something tugging on his shirt and he looked down at the Toon next to him.

“Henry…?” Alice asked. “Did you sense him?”

“I don’t know, but I think he’s at the church… let’s hope that Marsh is there to help him!” His chest hurt a little as he started to run, it felt like the pain of Bendy’s inky lines, and now he was even more worried.

\--

Bendy finally snapped out of his frozen, mute state when he was taken to a building. He felt a weird heat on his skin as he was forced inside, and it took him just seconds to realize where he was. It was the local church, and he could practically taste the holiness of this place on his tongue!

“AH! Release me, ya crazy broad!” Bendy began to struggle again, until he was slapped across the face.

“Do not disrespect me, you devil! You are going to go back to Hell where you belong! I know what you and that wolf-beast are doing! You’re controlling Ross and have that poor angel held captive! And next you’re going to do harm to those kids, you’re tricking them, putting them into a false sense of security, so you can take them away and do who knows what to them!”

Bendy stared at her. “Y-You’re crazy…! They’re mah friends, I would never do anythin’ to ‘em! Boris an’ me are good people, an’ Henry an’ Alice an’ all mah friends love me! I’d rather die than hurt ‘em ever!” He snapped, his eyes changing, becoming off-model, which didn’t help his case as the woman screamed and grabbed a metal dish from a pillar close to them, hitting Bendy in the face with its contents.

It was water, which shouldn’t bother him too much, might make his ink run a little bit. But when it felt as if he had just been hit with acetone, he realized that she hit him with holy water.

The scream that came from him could make someone’s ears bleed.

Bendy dropped to his knees, yanking his hand away from the stunned woman. Steam was literally coming off of his body where the water had hit him, he was dripping globs of ink on the floor as he screamed in pain and fear. He had never felt pain like this before, not even with what Joey had done to him, it felt like the acetone one of his clones had been drenched in, but somehow this was worse.

A door opened, but Bendy didn’t notice, he didn’t even hear Reverend Marsh’s voice until the man was kneels next to him, looking at him in shock. “Bendy! Bendy, can you hear me?! Look at me!” He tried to turn Bendy’s head to face him, but his hands sunk into the ink, and he stared in horror at his daughter’s friend.

The Toon was leaking so much ink, it was amazing how such a tiny body could have this much ink in it. He was becoming a lump mess, but also a puddle at the same time. All of the ink coming off of him covered his hands and feet, he was a mess with a floating head and a melting, visible bowtie.

Bendy was turning into a black and white puddle in his hands as he stared in shock. “W-We gotta get you out of here!”

“But Reverend,” the woman spoke up, “he’s getting what he deserves, we cannot have a demon corrupting our town.”

“Sarah!” Marsh snapped at her. “He is not corrupting anyone, he is a friend of my family and he is not a problem. What did you do to him?”

“I tried to do God’s work on him!”

“You hurt him! He’s dying!”

Bendy coughed and gagged, spitting out ink. “H-Henr… I need…”

Marsh turned back to Bendy, frowning deeply as he tried to lift him up, but it was like picking up something slimy with no grip, and Bendy was just falling apart in his hands. He heard the front doors to the building open, and Marsh turned to see Henry standing there, out of breath, and looking so distressed. There was a scream and he noticed Alice standing next to Henry, her eyes were off-model enough to show that she was terrified at the sight of her friend.

“Bendy…! Oh no, Bendy!” She ran towards her friend, who could only give her a pained, weak smile.

“Hhheeeyy…” He wheezed out before he hacked up more ink. “I… need a… a l-li’l help…”

“You need a lot more than that…” Alice whimpered, looking at the large puddle of ink, turning to see that Henry was frozen in place. “Henry… is there anything you can do?”

Carefully, Henry moved towards his creation, looking at Bendy before he knelt down, carefully taking his head from Marsh. “Hey buddy… what happened?”

“W-well… ya know I’mma… d-demon…” Bendy said, trying to laugh as his body shook from him gasping, it hurt, it hurt so much! “… wanna go home… it hurts…”

“Reverend, do you have… I guess a bucket? I need to get him home, I don’t… I don’t think he can reform in a place like this.”

The other man nodded, running off to get a bucket or some kind of container to use to pick up Bendy. Alice looked so scared before she noticed the woman standing nearby. “What happened?” She asked, her halo glowing brightly as she clenched her fists tightly. Judging by the ink on her hand and on those beads she held…

“I-I was simply doing the Lord’s work…! He would want the demon taken care of! A lot of the town wants him gone!”

“That doesn’t give you the right to just hurt him like this!” Alice barked. “He’s a good boy, he’s not a demon or terror or whatever you people keep calling him! He’s a cartoon like me, and we were made to make people happy, how dare you think that he would do something terrible!”

Sarah looked offended that the fallen angel would be angry at her, but she just huffed and turned. “He got what he deserved.” Was as she said as she made her way for the door. Alice moved to chase after her, give her a piece of the angel’s mind, but a gentle hand touched her arm. She looked at Henry, seeing the tired, worried look on his face.

“She’s not worth it, Bendy’s more important… do you think you can help him?”

Alice looked at her friend, he was looking so much worse… one of his eyes was completely soaked in ink. She hadn’t seen him this bad since he started dripping too much back in the studio, before… well… before she went ‘missing’. She carefully approached, resting a hand on him, but Bendy screamed in pain. “W-what did I do wrong?!” She gasped, looking scared, she hurt him!

“Shhh, it’s okay, Alice… I think that you bein’… well, part angel, isn’t helping him. You’re a fallen angel, but you’re still holy in some aspects of your self.” Henry reasoned as he tried to help Bendy up, only to just stand there, holding the demon’s head, his body dropping to the floor with a splat. “… Oh shit.”

“Oh shit indeed.” Marsh spoke up as he approached. “He’s getting worse, can you fix him, Henry?” He set the bucket down, he had found a cup they could use to scoop up the ink if they could.

“It might take me a while.” Henry sighed, looking at his distraught Toon. “Bendy, listen to me, I know you’re in a lot of pain, and you’re really scared, but we gotta put you together, okay? Can you focus on your body? Like we do when you want to stop bein’, ya know, your other form?”

Bendy looked up at him with his one eye. “I’m scared… d-dis ain’t like dat…”

“I know, kid, but it’s the best we can do. We’re gonna try to clean you up, okay? But you focus on tryin’ to at least get your body into some sort of decent state, or at least solid enough for us to get you in the bucket and get your head back on. Can you do that?”

“I’ll try…”

Henry sat down, holding Bendy’s head as the little Toon tried hard to reform his body as best as he could. Alice and Marsh quietly tried to clean up some of the ink, putting it into the bucket with Alice using the cup and Marsh using his hands. As he sat there, Henry quietly spoke with Bendy, talking to him about the old shorts he had animated, he knew Bendy liked that, he was a bit egotistical. It helped to keep him distracted from the pain.

“Remember that one where you kept pokin’ Barley while he was sleepin’ next to Edgar? And Barley kept thinking it was the spider? And you kept poking him to the point where he just grabbed Edgar in his sleep?”

“A-An’ threw him right in da ocean…” Bendy chuckled a little as Henry pushed some of the ink on his face upwards towards his horns, happy to see that it wasn’t running back down over his eyes. Okay, he was getting better as long as he ignored the pain.

“Yeah, that was a good one. Oh, and the one where you kept turnin’ off Alice’s mic while she tried to sing a new song?”

Alice huffed. “I remember that one. Did you write that one, Henry?”

“No, but I sure as heck animated it, heh, drawin’ your angry faces was fun.”

“N-not fun for me, when she got me with a shoe..!” Bendy spoke up, sounding a bit better as one of his hands pushed its way out of the blob that was slowly becoming his body. It took them almost thirty minutes to get Bendy into a somewhat-solid state. Henry placed his head back on his body, where it floated naturally, but he was still dripping and hard to pick up as he got him into the bucket, having him sit in all the ink they could scoop up.

“What do we do about the rest of this?” Marsh asked, staring at the puddle and stained marks on the floor.

Bendy shifted, carefully pulling his arm up and over the rim of the bucket, dropping it onto the ground. “I can… try to absorb it back, it’s gonna hurt like a sunny beach, but… hey, I’ve caused ya enough trouble today, don’t wanna add more to dat with a stain on yer shiny floor.”

Henry frowned, wanting to tell Bendy it was alright, he’d get a mop, but he watched as Bendy put his hand on the puddle. The ink was starting to recede, and he knew from past experiences that Bendy was absorbing it. Sometimes it pays to be real demon made of ink, even though that is why this happened in the first place.

Once the majority of the ink was absorbed, Bendy sank into the bucket more, panting, looking tired and still in pain. Henry’s chest ached a little as he looked at the Toon, damnit, he should have known that at some point, someone would try to do something like this. Bendy doesn’t deserve this, he’s suffered enough at the hands of Joey and the studio itself, he didn’t need to deal with people fearing a cartoon who didn’t do anything to them.

“Thank you,” Henry started, looking at the reverend, “sorry about everythin’, can’t say I was expectin’ this, though I really should have.”

“It’s fine, just get him home and rested, he went through a lot.” Marsh replied, smiling a little at him. “Good luck with your recovery, Bendy.”

“Thank you.” The demon mumbled, closing his eyes. He was exhausted and just wanted to nap.

Henry turned, walking out with Alice and Bendy let out a small sigh of relief, suddenly feeling much better now that he was getting away from the church. He started to fall asleep and was out like a light halfway home. The animator looked down at the Toon in the bucket, a somber look on his face. “Might have to be a bit more careful from now on… might have to have someone with him whenever he goes out.”

“He won’t like that.” Alice replied.

“At least for a little while, I know people are still gettin’ use to the idea of you guys, but… this was a little extreme.”

“Not as extreme as stuff at the studio, but…”

“This was a different kind, yeah.” Henry sighed through his nose, shaking his head. “Fuck… you okay, Alice?”

She gave him a weary smile. “I’ll be okay when Bendy is better.”

“Give him a few hours, he’ll be okay.” The animator spoke as he looked down at Bendy, seeing him snoring lightly in the bucket. “He’s probably gonna be a hurtin’ unit for a bit though. I wonder what happened, was being in a church really that bad for him?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. We did one cartoon where I tricked him into a church and…” She thought about it, pulling a face. “I just remember he ran out crying and making high pitch whistles of distress. It was obviously a Joey cartoon, and it wasn’t funny, it was just… it was sad. A lot of Joey’s cartoons were mean to Bendy, even before… you know, the start of his changes.”

Henry narrowed his eyes as he looked on ahead, thinking about what Joey did to Bendy always put him in a sour mood, but he shook his head. “Let’s not think about that, let’s get him home. I’ve got… a lot of drawin’ to do today.”

\--

Bendy woke up, his body hurt in a lot of places, but not as bad as it had been in the… oh! His eyes widened, and he sat up, letting out a yelp before he was gently pushed back down. Blinking, Bendy looked over at Henry, who was holding a pen in his hand. “Hey, you okay?” The human asked.

“I… I’m alright, just hurtin’ in some places. What happened? What’re you doin’?”

“Fixing you up in some places. Your body returned to normal while you were asleep, but I’m just repairin’ a few spots on you that didn’t repair themselves.” He gestured to some spots on Bendy’s foot where Henry had been filling in with the special ink well. The demon knew why the didn’t repair themselves, it was from the holy water, but Henry didn’t need to know that right now.

Bendy watched him as he returned to his work. “… Did I scare you an’ Alice?”

“Not gonna sugar coat it, punk, but you scared the shit outta me. Alice is really upset, and so is Boris. They just want you to be safe. You were pretty freaked out yourself, weren’t you?”

“Terrified, to be honest. Dat lady… thought of me as a monster or somethin’, and then took me in there…”

“What did she do?”

The demon shifted and looked away. “Touched me with those beads she had, then dragged me to da church. An’ we… I dunno, I just started meltin’ an’ stuff.” He didn’t wanna tell Henry that holy water burned him, hell, he didn’t want to talk about this at all, so he told this to Henry.

“When you’re ready, you can tell me, okay?” He just got a nod in response. Henry silently returned to finishing up the last little details before setting down his pen. “There we go. Come on, let’s go to the kitchen, Boris is making bacon for dinner, does that sound good?”

Bendy looked at him now, smiling a bit. “Are we havin’ pancakes with it?”

“Yes, we are.” Henry replied, helping him sit up before just picking up the Toon. “Bacon pancakes actually.”

“Yes! My favorite!” The older man was happy to see that Bendy was in a much better mood, that’s a relief. But he knew his Toon better than anyone, he has a feeling that this will bother Bendy later, so it’s just best to have him in a positive mood for now, and deal with everything else later.

END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve mentioned the connection between Bendy and Henry before, in a one-shot where “Bendy” was bothering “Alice” while Henry was dealing with Sammy’s puzzles, and probably in some other stories, but I can’t remember. But I only had it mentioned that Bendy can sense Henry, I do have plans for later stories where Henry can sense Bendy, but he doesn’t know that he can.
> 
> The reason this story exists is because I like reading stories like this, where shit happens to Bendy through holy objects (especially in stories where Bendy is a real demon who is also a cartoon) and water. So, I combined them both with holy water. At some point, I'll do a rain fanfic cause a lot of writers for this fandom have done it before.
> 
> If you’re wondering about why I said Bendy’s horns twitched, his Ink Demon model in the game’s horns freaking move, and the idea of normal Bendy’s doing the same sounds adorable.
> 
> Also, I’d like to note that I have noticed that I am very inconsistent of how Bendy talks in my stories. Gonna have to go back and edit all of the one-shots where he talks so they are correct. Whoops.
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading, sorry this one wasn’t that great, but I’ve been having trouble writing lately. Please comment and leave a kudos, it helps keep me going! And if you want, you can send me suggestions, I’m always open to ideas!


	6. A Night for Demons and Mischief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Halloween is an interesting holiday for the Toons, considering that it is much different in the real world than it is in the cartoon world.
> 
> Maybe this is a good time to play the part of a demon for good, old-fashion scares on some nasty bullies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you Werecatkid17 for the suggestion!
> 
> I know it’s not Halloween, but I really don’t care, this sounded like a fun idea, and I get to play around with Bendy’s new, scary design in this, so why not! Plus, I’m having a hard time coming up with ideas cause I wanna wait for chapter five to do anything with Boris and Alice when it comes to why they escaped (I have theories, but I gotta wait until October to really do what I want to do).
> 
> On with the fic!

“Whatcha buyin’, Henry?” Bendy asked as he looked at the items his creator had placed in the shopping cart. There were strange decorations of orange, black, and purple, along with some splotches of white and green. Skeletons, ghosts, and bats were common sights of the mix, and there was candy as well.

“Halloween decorations. I figured that since we’ve got a house now instead of my old apartment, and I’m livin’ with you guys, we can decorate our place and celebrate this corny holiday.” Henry replied, picking up a plastic jar of candy bones before putting it back on the shelf.

Bendy blinked, before letting out a surprised gasp. Oh! He remembered Halloween, they did a few shorts that came out around that time of the year. The most well-known was _Haunted Hijinks_ , but they also did one where Bendy acted like a real demon for pranks, _Devil’s Night_ , and one where Alice was a witch, _Witchy Miss Angel_. There was also one called _Boristein_ , but after what happened back in the studio… Bendy would rather like to forget that one.

Halloween wasn’t really a big deal for cartoon characters, but it seemed that humans really liked it, considering all the decorations here in the store, and he had seen a few houses in the neighborhood putting out decorations. Bendy hadn’t bothered to ask about them though, he figured his friends or Henry would tell him.

“What do humans do for Halloween?” Alice asked, having turned her attention away from a cute set of paper bats for a paper chain decoration.

“We decorate our houses and such to be scary, and people, often kids, dress up in costumes to go trick or treatin’.” The animator replied, before frowning. “Boris, that bone is plastic, please don’t put that in your mouth.” He reached over, taking the fake leg bone from the wolf.

“Aw, but it looks like mah ol’ one.” Boris pouted. “Say, if yer gonna decorate da house, are ya gonna dress up too?”

Henry shrugged. “I dunno, I haven’t dressed up for Halloween since I was… fifteen? I think I was a vampire or somethin’, but I don’t think I’ll do it this year. If you guys wanna do it, you can, might be fun.”

This got the Toons attention peaked, they seemed excited and started to chat amongst themselves about what they were gonna be while Henry continued his shopping. Heh, this could be fun, it’s been forever since he’s really done anything involving this holiday, and he figured his creations would like to give it a try.

\--

“I know what I wanna be!” Bendy happily said as he and Henry got themselves ready for bed.

Henry paused in setting his alarm clock, turning his attention to the demon who was settling himself in his dresser drawer bed. “Oh yeah? And what do you wanna be for Halloween? It is this weekend.” It had taken almost the whole month for Bendy to pick, so Henry hoped it wouldn’t be anything complicated.

Alice and Boris had already figured out what they wanted to be back at the beginning of the month. Alice was going to be a pirate, and she had gotten the parts for her costume ready to go pretty early on. Boris wanted to go as a mummy, his original idea of going as a Frankenstein-like monster was quickly rejected, mainly because, well… none of them were over what happened before. Also, Boris was afraid of the movie, so why be the monster from the movie that made you cry?

Even Henry was gonna dress up, he decided to dress up as Bendy, in a suit and all. But Bendy? The devil darlin’ couldn’t figure out anything good, until now it seems.

“You gotta guess!” Bendy grinned, though he looked nervous as he snuggled up with his plush look-a-like.

“Hmm, alright. An angel?” Henry joked, getting a grossed-out face in return. “Okay, an alien?”

“Nope, I’ll let you guess three more times!”

“A ghost?”

“Nope, but that was somethin’ I considered for a while!”

“A werewolf?”

“Nah, Boris thought it was a dumb idea.”

“Alright, a monster?”

Bendy tapped his face, as if touching his non-existent nose. “I’m gonna be a special kinda monster!” He looked really nervous, his grin shaking, as if he was regretting his idea now. Henry figured it out quickly.

“Bendy… no, you can’t.”

“But I wanna! The kids were tellin’ me a lot of da best costumes are the scary ones! An’ what’s scarier than a real demon? Ya know?” He was dripping ink as Henry approached. “I know what yer thinkin’, dat this is a bad idea, dat I’ll be unstable… but I’ve been practicin’, ol’ man! I really have! I’m sure you’ve felt it!”

And he had, Henry’s felt a lot of strange things while at work lately. A strange feeling in the back of his head, his vision a bit dark in the corners, and his heart would sometimes beat a little too hard in his chest. “But you don’t always do well with it.”

“I’ll only keep it fer a few hours! An’ if not dat, da inky puddle one I can do!” He got out of his bed, standing in front of Henry now.

“Watch, please!” Bendy closed his eyes, letting out a small breath, before flexing his fingers, they started to change. His right hand started to shrink, coated in black ink as his left hand gained an extra finger.

Henry watched as Bendy’s form began to get taller, lankier, ink pooling off of him easily. Well… as long as he kept this form, and not his more, well, skeletal form… maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. He frowned, crossing his arms as Bendy stopped changing, towering over him with his grin in place. He swiped a hand over his inky face, revealing a large, off-model, yellow eye. **“I even figured out how to let mahself see again…! But not fer long, still workin’ on keepin’ da ink from drippin’ too much.”**

The human blinked, well, he was impressed Bendy has been working on controlling his Ink Demon form, probably since that big nightmare he had a while back. “Are you sure this is what you wanna go as?”

**“Just while we’re trick or treatin’, I promise I’ll change to normal after dat!”**

“Well… alright, but if it’s too much, you’re gonna dress up as somethin’ else. I don’t even want you in your inky mass form. That might be too much.”

Bendy huffed, rolling his one eye. **“Fine, I promise! But thank you, I’ll make sure nothin’ bad happens! An’ I’ll change to normal before I even go into dat skeleton form again!”** He sighed. **“Is this a bad idea? Should I just be a ghost like in dat one cartoon?”**

Henry scratched his head. “I don’t know, I mean, it’s up to you. This is your first Halloween, you can try with this form, or you can wait until you’re sure you’ve got it perfected.” He noticed Bendy make a face when he said that last word. “I mean, when you’ve gotten it down to where it doesn’t go unstable.”

**“Yeah, I… I guess I can do dat. Besides, might be fun to be a cute, li’l ghost! Plus, dat way I don’t have to worry about, ya know, scarin’ mah friends too much. Same with Alice an’ Boris…”**

Reaching out, Henry patted Bendy between his horns, the ink was warm. “Yeah, that’s probably for the best, and besides, you’ll get more candy as a cute ghost anyway.”

 **“Yes!”** His grin grew huge, there was something hilarious about seeing an eight-foot-something demonic creature being excited about candy.

“Good, now change back, it’s time for bed. Can you turn back easily?”

**“Still a bit troublesome, but don’t’cha worry, I can do it!”**

Henry nodded and moved to get into bed, hearing Bendy’s body snapping and popping, ink dripping as he started to transform back into his little demon form. It didn’t take long for Henry to hear Bendy get back into his bed before the human turned off the light.

\--

Alice threw open the door, happily rushing out onto the porch, dressed in her pirate costume. “Come on, people are already starting to walk around!” She turned to the other Toons as she stepped down the steps to the walkway.

Boris followed her out, wrapped up in gauze, his arms stiff in front of him as he made loud, exaggerated moaning sounds. She giggled, watching as he stumbled down the steps.

“You need to do that act on flat ground, Boris.” She said, taking his hands to help steady him as he made the last step.

The wolf chuckled, blushing gray as he straightened himself out. “Hehe… whoops! Bendy, ya ready?”

Rushing out, in a white sheet, was Bendy. He looked just as he did in the _Haunted Hijinks_ episode, with his cartoony eyes actually on the fabric. Cartoon logic is amazing.

“I’m ready!” He laughed, holding up his little pumpkin pail.

Henry was the last to step out, holding a bowl of candy. He was dressed in a tux, his hair temporarily painted black for the night. “Are you sure you guys will be okay?” He asked, moving to sit down on the chair set up on the porch, surrounded by carved pumpkins, done by neighborhood kids and the Toons.

“We’ll be alright, Henry.” Boris spoke up. “We’re gonna go as a big group wit’ all da kids, so don’t worry! An’ if anythin’ happens, we’ll let ya know.”

“Yeah, I’ll let ya know, ol’ man!” Bendy said from under the sheet, before he happily ran over to Norman and Cassandra, both were dressed as comic book superheroes.

Henry sighed, shaking his head. “Well, looks like he’s ready to go. Be careful you two, keep an eye on the kids, and make sure that everyone gets home safely.”

“We got it, Henry.” Alice smiled, giving him a nod before running over to Bendy and the kids.

“We’ll be home by eight! Dat’s when da trick ‘n treatin’ ends, yeah?” Boris asked, looking back at his creator.

“Yeah, looks like it, but if you get done earlier and want to help hand out candy, I won’t be mad.” Henry chuckled, leaning back in his seat. “Go have fun, and make sure Bendy keeps to the treats and not the tricks.”

Boris gave him a thumbs up. “I’ll do mah best! See ya in a bit, Henry! Hey, wait fer me, guys!” He ran after the small group.

So, the trick or treating began with Bendy leading the way. Alice and Boris stuck to the back to make sure they didn’t lose any of the children that had joined the group, and to keep an eye on their imp friend. Henry had quietly pulled the two Toons aside to ask them to please watch Bendy. He was a Toon, yes, but he was also a real demon, who knows what he could do on a night associated with demonic forces. Seems a little much, but you never know with Bendy, anything could happen.

But then again, no one could really blame Henry for being a bit paranoid about all this, considering everything that happened at the studio.

Happily, Bendy and his friends ran from house to house, filling their bags and pails with all sorts of delicious and wonderful treats. Candy, cheap-plastic toys, and even popcorn balls! It was amazing, they never had anything like this in the studio or in the cartoons!

“Check it out, Alice!” Bendy held up a quarter. “The humans even give out money!”

“Oh yeah, the Thompsons always do.” John grinned, looking into his bag. “They save up quarters to give to us kids every Halloween!”

“Which makes them a must on the Halloween trail.” Romeo added, pulling out a piece of candy to enjoy.

Alice blinked. “Halloween trail?”

Cassandra smiled at her, removing the lollipop from her mouth. “Yeah! It’s the path of houses that give out candy and treats. There are some people who don’t like Halloween and don’t do it, so we just avoid those houses.” She pointed to one that wasn’t decorated, their lights were off.

“Well, why don’t they? Do they not like it?” Boris asked, confused.

Norman shrugged as he traded some of his candy with John. “Well, some people are outta town, others don’t celebrate it for personal reasons, and some just don’t like it.”

“How borin’.” Bendy mumbled. “Welp, let’s keep goin’! I wanna fill up mah whole bucket with goodies!” He grinned, running down the sidewalk.

The angel in the group sighed loudly, shaking her head. “That fool is gonna trip and lose all his candy, I swear…” She started to follow after him, only to see that Bendy had stopped. She was about to ask what was wrong, when she noticed what he was looking at.

Just down the block was a group of older kids, probably teenagers, holdings bags and pails in their hands, and they were in front of a small group of children. Bendy huffed and started to march his way over, with Alice in tow.

“So, if ya don’t wanna ruin that pretty dress, you better pay up.” One of the older kids stated, looking down at the little girl dressed as a faerie princess.

She was trembling, looking scared as she held up her small bag, which was rudely snatched from her, just as her friends’ candy had been before hers. She sniffled and started to rub at her eyes, which only made the older kids laugh.

Bendy growled, uhg, typical, bullies would have to ruin a good night for kids! This felt almost cliché, like something from a TV show, but it was to be expected, people could be jerks. Well, he was gonna have to step in.

“Hey, ugly!” He called out, stomping over.

The leader of the group turned his attention to the newcomer, snorting. “Heh, what’s this? You got somethin’ to say to me, kid?”

“Ooooh~” One of the other teens said, smirking, wiggling her fingers. “It’s a scary ghost, he’s come to say ‘boo’ and scare the shit outta us.” She said in a mocking, cutesy voice that made Bendy roll his eyes.

“Hmm, that’s a pretty full bucket you’ve got there, brat, how about you hand it over and we won’t have to do anythin’ to ya.” The other boy in the group smirked, approaching Bendy, who stood his ground. “Well?” He held out his hand, but Bendy slapped it away.

“I think ya should give back those kids’ candies, or yer gonna have to deal wit’ me.” He stated, narrowing his eyes, but this only made the teens laugh at this. “What’s so funny?”

The leader snorted, stepping towards the demon. “You think some dork like you can take us all on? Please, you ain’t nothin’. Get outta here, we ain’t gonna listen to ya in that dumb get up.”

He shoved Bendy down with his foot, making the Toon fall on his back, before grabbing his pail. “Come on, let’s get outta here, heh, I know a great place where we can check out our ‘generous gifts’.”

Bendy sat up, watched at the group walked off. The little faerie princess approached, sniffling still. “Bendy, are you okay?” She asked, helping him to his feet.

“Yeah… but they took yer candy!” He frowned as she tried to dust off the footprint that was now on his ghost costume from that jerk.

“He took yours as well.” Another kid, dressed as a frog, spoke up, looking worried. “But thank you for standing up for us…”

Alice quietly approached, looking at her friend as she heard the rest of the group walk over to them. “It’s alright, Bendy. I’ll share my candy with you and the kids, I’m sure I don’t need it all anyway.” She tried to smile, but Bendy shook his head.

“Oh no, I’m not just gonna stand here an’ let some big bully ruin tonight!” He then pulled up the sheet, showing the smirk on his face, his pie-cut eyes showed two, tiny, yellow pin-pricks in them. “It’s Halloween, the night fer trick ‘r treatin’, yeah? Well, they took our treats, best way to get ‘em back is through a **trick**.”

Alice looked at him before looking up at Boris, who let out a whine. “Bendy, dat don’t sound like da best idea…”

“Yeah, what do you think you’re gonna do?” Alice narrowed her eyes, before she noticed the shadow under Bendy shifting. No, that wasn’t his shadow… those were his inky trails. She narrowed her eyes, what was he up to? This couldn’t be good…

He smiled, chuckling a little. “I promise I’ll keep everythin’ under control. Just keep an’ eye on da kiddies, I’ll be back!” He snickered, covering himself with his sheet again before he ran off, ignoring his friends’ shouts.

Now, to find those kids, and give them one heck of a trick for those treats…

\--

Henry smiled as he watched a little cowboy run back to his parents after getting his treats from the candy dish. It was rather nice to do this, he didn’t really do it at his old place, except when the occasional kid in the apartments wanted to trick or treat in the building. Henry always had a small dish of candy for those rare kids.

But out here, in this neighborhood? Lots of visitors, heh, he should do this again next year.

His happy thoughts turned sour when he felt a cold chill run up his spine. There was a dull ache in his chest, one he was very familiar with. Shit, was it… yes, it had to be Bendy. Oh no… he wasn’t, was he? No, no, he wouldn’t do something like become the Ink Demon, right?

But what if something was wrong? Maybe Henry’s fears were real, Bendy was unstable on a night like this…

Getting up, he set the candy dish down and ran from his porch, heading down the street on pure instinct of where to go. He had no idea what direction to go in, but he just ‘knew’, uhg, this weird connection with the ink was gonna be a pain to get use to. Also, thank goodness he went with boots instead of dress shoes with this costume.

He moved fast, following that weird sense he had for his demonic creation. From what he could tell, Bendy was making his way to an old, abandoned building in the area. Henry had been told about it by the neighbors, it was just some old house that was long abandoned, and high schoolers used it to do minor illicit things there since no one bothered to check the place out.

If Bendy is there, it’s probably for a reason for this sense that Henry was feeling. He blinked, spotting his Toons up ahead, along with a small group of kids, making him come to a stop. “Alice, Boris?”

Alice looked over at Henry, worry was on her face, oh no, that’s not good. “Henry? What are you doing here?”

“I think you know the answer to that.” He panted, damnit, he hated being old.

“He went dataway, Henry.” Boris pointed up the street. “He’s gonna try an’ get stolen candy back from some bullies!”

Henry sighed loudly in annoyance. “Darnit, alright, I’ll go make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid. You two, keep an eye on the kids and help them if they need anything. I’ve got a demon to take care of.”

With that, Henry began to run once more. He found the house a few blocks away, with Bendy standing outside, his ghost costume set aside. He was looking at the house, where muffled laughter was heard from inside. Ink was dripping from him, and his eyes were off-model, but other than that, he still looked the same.

Stepping up to him, Henry narrowed his eyes at the little demon. “Bendy, what are you doin’?”

“Nothin’, yet.” Bendy replied. “Tryin’ to figure out da best way to make dis work.”

“Are you goin’ to hurt those kids.”

Bendy snorted loudly, giving Henry a bored expression. “No, as much as I wanna, I ain’t gonna hurt anyone over candy bein’ stolen. However, they made mah friends cry, an’ they kicked me, which ain’t nice! Sure, it wasn’t fun bein’ kicked, but I don’t like seein’ mah friends upset, especially on such a fun night! So, I think a good, ol’ scare will be da best option to take care of things. But how to do it…”

Henry glanced at the house, uhg, it reminded him too much of the haunted house from Bendy Land. Sure, it wasn’t really scary, but what happened in there was gonna forever give Henry nightmares. Seeing your dear creation turned into a giant, deadly monster is way scarier than cheap, cardboard ghosts and-

He blinked, before turning to Bendy, seeing the ghost costume on the ground.

Henry didn’t like revenge, too many bad memories behind that option, but a prank? Oh, there wasn’t any harm in doing a little prank on Halloween. After all, you are given the option of trick _or_ treat, right? Maybe it was the unconscious influence of an annoyed, demonic cartoon that had Henry considering this, but he thought that this might be an interesting way of getting that candy back.

“Bendy, I have an idea.”

\--

The leader of the group of teens, Brian, chuckled as he cracked open his can of beer. “Another successful Halloween, yeah?” He asked, picking up a piece of candy. “Better than last year’s haul, some of those brats went to the rich neighborhoods!”

“I know, ain’t it great?” Samantha snickered as she popped a piece of gum into her mouth. “Maybe we should go get more? It’s still light out, kids are still getting candy, so yeah?”

“I think we should.” The other boy in the group, Mark, commented. “Got too much shit in here that ain’t good, store-brand, uhg! We need more of the good stuff.” He scoffed, tossing some cheap candy bar across the foyer, where it hit the front door.

They watched it drop to the ground, before the door open slowly with a loud, rusty creak. A figure in dark clothing was standing in the doorway, shadowed by the setting sun behind him.

“Well, well, well… what do we have here?” The man asked in a rather amused voice.

Brian glared, moving to stand up. “Uhhh… what do ya want, get out of here! Or do you want trouble?

“Hehehe… trouble? Oh my, I’m just here for a li’l story, kids.” The man chuckled, stepping one foot into the building. “You know the story behind this old buildin’, right?”

“Go away, old man.” Samantha tisked. “No one wants to hear some stupid story from you.” She said as the stranger walked a few more feet into the room, before the door slammed loudly behind him, the lock turning loudly.

He just smiled, green eyes staring at the small group, not fazed at all by the suddenly creepy atmosphere. “Gosh, such rude children. Still, I wish to tell you a delightful story of this house! You obviously know it’s long been abandoned, but there’s a reason for it.” When he didn’t get a verbal response, he took that as his cue to continue.

“You see, years ago, hmm… 1933, I believe was the year… a strange man came to claim this place as his home and business. He was a mortician, practicing his craft in the basement. But bein’ surrounded by so much death, well… it can change a man, make him do… unspeakable things…”

Mark twitched, feeling something wet and ice-cold brush against his arm, but when he looked, there was nothing there.

“The man was losing business, he needed more bodies, he couldn’t just dig up graves though. So, he decided to take it a step further, he killed people in hospitals he was associated with.”

Samantha heard a soft chuckle, and she turned around, but saw nothing behind her.

“He took care of the bodies but decided there could be fun in this. After all, he was a curious man, and had decided to dabble in the dark arts.”

Brian shuddered, was something looking at him? Turning, he didn’t see anyone but his friends and the stranger. Was there someone else in here…?

“You see, children… when one decides to play with dark arts, things… happen…” He smirked, turning his attention to a wall, where something started to leak from the old, moldy wallpaper. It was black, and forming into a circular shape, with a star in it.

“Oh, he had his fun, messin’ with the corpses, making them do his biddin’, makin’ them come back to life, only to take it away from them again. He was havin’ too much fun with the magic given to him by a demon, which isn’t always good. Demons like exchanges, they give, you take. And you give, they take. They don’t like just givin’ and you only takin’, oh no, they _hate_ it.”

The trio watched in horror as something formed in the middle of the pentagram. It was a large, black splotch, and something white jumped out of it. They looked at the thing as it stood up straight, and relaxed when they realized what it was.

“Oh, it’s just that dumb ghost kid from earlier.” Brian spoke up. “Uhg, is this some prank? Cause if it is, it’s totally lame.”

The man chuckled, before laughing hard, confusing the teenagers. “Oh my, you really have no idea what you’re dealin’ with, do you? Allow me to introduce to you the demonic being that haunts these halls…”

Brian raised an eyebrow, before jumping back, seeing the white sheet move upwards, rising into the air as something black formed under it. It was bony, lanky, misshapen. It rose, tall, the sheet covering its head. With a strange, white hand, it reached up and yanked the sheet off, showing a blackened face, with a huge, toothy smile.

The kids felt their hearts beating too hard in their chests as the walls and windows were suddenly coated in a pulsing, moving, black liquid of sorts. It covered the floor, and the ceiling was leaking something as the man just stood there, his eyes cold and his smirk wide.

The creature looked horrific as the kids turned their attention back to it. It seemed to have changed in just a few seconds, it’s body much more skeletal in appearance, with strange spikes on its back. Its wide grin was twitching violently as the room turned much darker.

It stumbled towards them, arms waving limp in front of it as the group tried to back away. It let out loud hisses and growls as it dragged a busted up looking foot behind itself. The group was frozen in fear as the demon towered over them when it finally closed the distance, and it leaned down.

It was right in front of Brian, its breath was cold like ice, it smelled strong, like ink. It hissed before cracking open its mouth, a black liquid pooled out of the dark hole.

**_“Boo.”_ **

The teenagers screamed, bolting right for the door, struggling to undo the lock as the demon shuffled toward it, the windows completely covered in the inky liquid, blacking out the room.

With enough struggling, the lock finally came undone and the group ran, still screaming as Henry laughed, clutching his sides. He heard a deep, wet sounding laugh as he looked up at Bendy, the Toon looked pleased as peaches, and so far, he seemed stable, even in this form. **“Dat was a good idea, Henry.”** He commented, looking at his creator.

“Didn’t hurt anyone, and you still got to be a demon for Halloween, so I think it was a win-win.” Henry smiled, seeing Bendy’s ink shift in places, he started to take on his typical Ink Demon appearance.

He walked over to the candy that sat on the floor and started to scoop it back into the discarded buckets and bags. “Come on, put on your ghost costume.”

 **“Hmm… can’t I just… stay like dis a li’l longer…? Please?”** Bendy asked, pushing at the ink on his face to reveal an eye. **“I promise it won’t be fer long! I just wanna show da kids…!”**

Henry looked over at him, wanting to say no, but he was gonna be with Bendy, so maybe that would be fine. “Alright, just to show them, and maybe to hit up a few houses to spook the neighbors.” This answer put a big grin on the not-so-little demon’s face.

\--

“Is dat… Bendy?” Boris asked when he spotted Henry walked up the street, holding onto the hand of their eight-foot tall friend.

Alice blinked before slapping her forehead, seeing the smiles of their faces. “Oh dear, what did you two boys do?”

 **“Pranked ‘em good! Dat’s what we did!”** Bendy laughed, seeing the kids looking at him with wide eyes. **“Hey guys, we got da candy!”** He held up his tiny pumpkin pail, which looked even smaller in his large, cartoony hand.

The little faerie princess approached Bendy, looking up at him. “Bendy?”

**“Yep, it’s me, dis is… uhh…”**

“Kids, this is Bendy, it’s just another version of him. He’s a demon, remember? And a cartoon, so that means he can shapeshift.” Henry spoke up. “Don’t worry, he’s friendly, he won’t do anything except maybe prank you.”

The little girl blinked, but giggled. “That’s so amazing!”

“Yeah!” Norman grinned, running up to Bendy, touching his leg. “Eww, you’re all wet, haha!”

“Whoa, let me feel!” His little sister approached, giggling as she put her hand on Bendy’s other leg. “I didn’t know you could do this! Can Alice and Boris change to?”

Henry scratched the back of his head, shaking it. “Nah, not like Bendy. Are… you kids alright with this?”

The group of children happily said their approvals of Bendy’s other form, which both surprised and pleased Bendy greatly, his friends weren’t scared of him! Seems like his Toon friends and creator weren’t either, which made him feel so much better. Still, it wasn’t a form he was fond of, but for tonight, it didn’t hurt to be spooky and scary.

It was Halloween after all.

END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Corny and cheesy all at the same time, but it was fun having Henry get in on Bendy’s prank and being the one to come up with it.
> 
> I’ll do more angsty stuff soon, I’m trying to figure out some stuff for Alice and Boris, especially with what happened in chapter four. I think it might be fun to do nightmare stories for them like I did with Bendy.
> 
> I take suggestions for ideas! If you have any, tell me, I’m all ears!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	7. Sometimes Things Happen that You can’t Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Toons take notice to Henry’s somber mood and decide to ask him what it’s all about, especially after he had been so happy just a few days prior.
> 
> Henry decides to tell them a little of his mysterious past to answer their questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a very strong feeling two of my friends are gonna kick my butt over this update, but I did warn them ahead of time. Sorry, Dober! Sorry, Spottie! I told you I was gonna write something about Linda for this series!
> 
> This takes place after my Christmas fanfic from last year, Home for the Holidays.
> 
> Warning: past character death
> 
> On with the fic!

Bendy was the first to notice the mood change in Henry when they returned from visiting Henry’s family for Christmas.

Just four days before, the man had been in a good mood, even talkative with the Toons as he drove them back home in California. But the next day, he seemed to be… quiet, more so than normal. Bendy had sensed something, an itching in the back of his head, that made him feel sad. He wasn’t sure what it was, he had actually been pretty positive lately, especially after all the nice gifts he got, but he realized that the sadness was from Henry. Sometimes he forgets that weird empathy thing he and Henry shared because of the ink in their bodies.

Alice took notice next when she found Henry in his room, looking at something in the side table. She saw that it was a picture frame, but she couldn’t see the image. Then Henry closed the drawer and locked it, dang it!

Boris was the last to see Henry’s change of mood when he was at work with him. He caught the human spacing out too hard while he was suppose to be repairing a windshield wiper and actually snapped it when Boris snapped him out of it. It needed to be removed anyway, but still.

“Okay, we gotta ask him what’s up.” Alice frowned when she looked out the window, seeing Henry drive off, saying he had to run some errands.

“We should, I caught him starin’ at one of dem kitchen chairs, like he was waitin’ fer someone to come sit down.” Boris mumbled, glancing over at the kitchen.

Bendy huffed, crossing his arms. “You guys have no idea how much dis is buggin’ me! I’ve never felt his emotions dis strong before! They’re almost like his rage fits in da studio, except these are makin’ me feel so depressed, like someone’s died.”

He sighed, looking up at the ceiling. “When we first moved into dis place, I felt somethin’ like dis, but Henry tried to hide it. I asked him about it, an’ he told me dat he had lived here before wit’ someone from his past, but he left it at dat.”

Alice blinked. “He did? Hmm… do you think Henry maybe lived here with a good friend? Or maybe… someone he loved? Like a girlfriend?”

“Or a wife?” Boris questioned. “Alice, didn’t ya say ya saw him lookin’ at a photo da other day? Maybe dat’s a clue.”

The angel gave a nod, moving to head for the stairs. “We can try to see, but Henry’s got the drawer locked! And… I do feel bad for wanting to snoop around, but I want to know what’s wrong.”

“Eh, don’t worry about it, angel.” Bendy snorted as he followed after her, the wolf following behind. “We’ll just pick da lock, take a look, an’ then ask Henry what’s up when he comes home.”

“Well… if you say so, I want to know so badly, but I feel bad for prying.”

“Henry needs to be more open wit’ us. He can’t keep hidin’ things from us forever, we’re gonna have to know eventually, ya know?” The demon shrugged as he got to the top of the stairs and went into Henry’s room. He tugged off his right glove and got in front of the lock built into the side table. His index finger changed shape into that of a key and Bendy pushed his finger inside, feeling the ink shift more into the proper shape.

He turned his hand and heard a click. Grinning, he pulled his hand away and opened the drawer. Inside was several little items. There was a dark red ribbon of sorts, a few closed ring and necklace boxes, and a photo in a frame. Reaching out, Bendy picked up the photo to look at it.

There was Henry, so much younger looking, probably his early 20’s, dressed in a suit as he stood in a church. Next to him was a young woman, her hair blond from what they could tell with the black and white photo, her eyes bright as she held Henry’s hand. She was dressed in a wedding dress with a dark ribbon in her hair, probably the one in the drawer.

“Henry… has a wife?” Alice asked as she took the photo, looking at it before letting Boris see.

“She’s real pretty! Wonder where she is, an’ why Henry hasn’t told us about her.” Boris frowned as he gently set the frame on the bed. “Bendy!” He shouted when he noticed the demon was digging through the stuff in the drawer.

“Hang on, I found a letter!” He held up a folded sheet of paper, which Alice snatched from him.

She glowered at the sneaky Toon before opening the letter, looking it over before she started to read it out loud.

“My dearest Henry,

It’s so lonely without you here at home, but I know that there is nothing you can do about your situation. The war needs any young, able-bodied man to fight, and I thank you for what you’re doing, for protecting your home, your family, and me.

I got your letter, and the beautiful photos and drawings you sent. It’s nice that you were able to find places in France that weren’t destroyed, maybe one day we can go when there is no chaos. I know you still want to take me on a second honeymoon. Hehehe, that’s such a silly notion, we’ve only been married for a few years, that’s for old people, we have plenty of time to go on a second one when we’re old and gray.

And I know we will be, you’re more stubborn than anyone else I know, you’re going to get through this tour and come home, sweeping me off my feet to plant the biggest kiss you’ve got. I’m holding you to that, you said you’d do it when I saw you off at the bus station, so I’m expecting it when you return.

With all my love,

Linda”

“Linda?” Bendy asked, looking at the letter. “She must be the lady in da picture.”

“Looks like Henry did have a wife, maybe… somethin’ bad happened to her, dat’s why he’s so sad.” Boris frowned, his ears folding back against his head.

Bendy frowned as well before pulling out a big, brass key from the drawer. “I think I know what dis is for, maybe there’s more.”

He went to the end of the bed, where an old chest sat, Alice and Boris always thought it was just some sort of decorative piece, but Bendy knew differently. He had seen Henry look inside of it once, when he thought Bendy wasn’t looking, but the demon never got to see what was in it. He unlocked the chest and opened the lid, looking into it.

There were all sorts of things inside, more framed photos, a few photo albums, some articles of clothing, including what looked to be the wedding dress. They even found a shoe box full of letters, both from Linda and Henry from during the war.

Some of the photos the Toons looked over were of Linda and Henry at different stages in life, including a photo of a couple at Henry’s desk in the studio. There was them at a lake, a souvenir photo from an amusement park, photos are Henry’s parent’s home, and some at another place.

There was even a photo of Linda standing outside of the house they currently lived in

“This was there home.” Alice whispered as she looked at this photo.

“Looks like it… I wonder what ha-”

“What the hell?!” The Toons jumped as they heard Henry enter the room, the animator looked shocked and angry. “What have I told you guys about goin’ through my stuff!?”

“H-Henry, we can explain..!” Boris stammered as Alice hid behind him, but Bendy stepped forward.

He held up the wedding photo and Henry looked down at it, the anger on his face dropped immediately. “How did you…?”

“Henry, I’m sorry, but I’ve been feelin’ all dis sadness from ya! An’ Alice an’ Boris have noticed it too, we just… we just wanted to know what’s wrong. Does it have to do with Linda?”

Carefully, Henry took the photo from the demon and looked at it. “Yeah, it does. Do you guys know what tomorrow is?”

“Uhh… January seventh?” Bendy asked as he watched Henry take a seat on the bed, quickly following after him with his friends joining.

“Yeah. And it’s an anniversary for me.” Henry replied as he set the frame on the side table. “Tomorrow will be the sixth anniversary since Linda passed away.”

A small gasp escaped Alice. “Oh, oh Henry, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.” The animator tried to smile, but it was obvious he wasn’t feeling it. “Sometimes things happen that you can’t change, you can’t prevent.”

Boris whined, wringing his hands together. “W-what happened to her, Henry? If ya don’t mind me askin’?”

Henry looked at the wolf before looking at his lap. “Linda got really sick. She’s never had the best health, sometimes a cold would have her in bed for a week, but she always tried to push on. She didn’t like it stoppin’ her. Heh, one time I caught her deep cleanin’ the house when she was suppose to be on bed rest cause she was so bored and hated bein’ sick.”

His smile was sad, but honest. “She was the most important person in the world to me, my high school sweetheart. I met her the first day of eleventh grade, new girl to town, had just moved there a week before. I took one look at her and realized that I never wanted to be with anyone else. I even told her on prom night that once she stopped her car that I was gonna hold her, love her, and that I probably would never let her go. She said she’d do the same with me, we shared our first kiss that night.”

He felt Bendy press against his side as he quietly listened to Henry talk. “We got married not too long after the studio’s opening, took forever for Joey to let me have the week off, I had to finish a lot of storyboard work before I could get that vacation. It was worth it, I took Linda to Hawaii for our honeymoon. Typical, I know, but she wanted to go since she was little and I made sure to let her have the best week of her life.

Linda was always there for me, even when I went to war, she waited at home for me. After I was fired and banned from the studio, she came with me to stay with my parents for a bit while I dealt with that. After a year, we decided to move here, took this old house left by my grandfather to me, made it our home. She was there for me when I recovered from my war injuries, and when I was lookin’ for work. She found me a job, the one I have now, while she took up a teaching job here for second graders.”

He balled his hands into fists. “Things were goin’ well, but every couple has their troubles. Because of Linda’s health, we discovered that she couldn’t have kids. It was heart breakin’, but we did our best. Linda was hurt, but she knew that she was just happy that she had me, that she was an aunt cause of my sister’s kids and her own siblings’ kids. But then… her health took a turn for the worse.”

Henry remembered it clearly, it was around Christmas time when things started to change. “We had been at my parents’ place for Christmas when Linda caught a cold. She was doing fine though, just a little stuffed up, but she was hidin’ the worst of it from me. She didn’t want to ruin the holiday, she wanted to have a good time and to make me happy.”

Bendy noticed Henry’s hands were shaking, his voice tightening. “But then… when we got home, she collapsed, her body was so hot and she was so pale. I took her to the emergency room and discovered that she had a terrible case of the flu, her ever was so high. She tried to get better, she really did, but I was there when she died. Linda held my hand and told me that she was happy I was there, that she could see me one last time.”

Henry suddenly felt three sets of arms hugging onto him tightly. “Please don’t cry, Henry.” He heard Alice say against his side. He wanted to ask her what she meant by that, but he realized that he was, well, crying. He hadn’t even realized it, he… wow, he hadn’t cried over Linda since the first year passed since her death. He had tried to be strong and mourn in silence, but…

This is just like back in the studio, when he cried from all the pent-up emotion he had, when he heard that tape of his younger self in that once-flooded room. When he had felt a comforting hand on his back… when he was feeling now. Glancing to his side, he found Bendy rubbing his back, the little devil had big, inky tears running down his own face. Heh, for some one who acts tough, he was a real softy.

“Thanks guys, I’m… sorry, I haven’t spoken to anyone about Linda in a long time, it actually feels nice to talk about her like this with someone.”

“You’re welcome, Henry.” Boris smiled as he patted the human on the head. “Sometimes ya gotta get all dat off yer chest, like ya let us talk to you about what’s on our minds after all dat stuff dat happened in da studio.”

“Yeah!” Bendy sniffed, rubbing at his eyes. “Don’t be hidin’ stuff like dat from us, ol’ man! If you wanna talk, talk to us! We’re here for ya. We’re yer family, Henry, you don’t have to hide your past from us, we don’t mind.”

Alice gave a nod as she sat back. “Yeah, and don’t hide these photos of Linda and you, she made you happy. I know it hurts greatly to be reminded of the past, but it’s also good to remember the positives, the good times. Put up these photos, we know you want to.”

Henry looked at the three Toons, before smiling softly, nodding. “Yeah, I should do that. Hey, do you guys… wanna meet Linda tomorrow?”

\--

Bendy quietly followed Henry and his friends through the cemetery, seeing that Henry was carrying a bouquet of flowers in his arms. “You okay today, big guy?” Bendy asked, looking up at him.

“Yeah, just… heh, it’s one of those things, you know? Oh, there she is.” Henry picked up his steps and made his way to a grave marker. It was simple in design, with a little set of angel wings on the top of it. The Toons saw Linda’s name on it, along with dates. “Hey, Linda, it’s me.”

He smiled as he gently set the flowers down on the ground in front of the marker. “Linda, I’d like you to meet the new members of our family. Remember how you use to joke that they were my kids? Heh, well… I think they’re pretty much our kids, for real. Linda, I’d like you to meet my Toons.”

Alice approached first, a little smile on her own face. “Hello, Linda! I’m Alice Angel, Henry’s told us a lot about you!”

“Howdy there, Mrs. Linda!” Boris chuckled. “I’m Boris da Wolf, bet ya remember me from the show, yeah? Your husband here is a swell guy an’ I’m sure you’re just the finest peach yerself!”

Bendy grinned as he bowed. “An’ I’m Bendy, da Dancin’ Demon! Glad to be part of da Ross family wit’ you an’ da old man!”

Henry looked at the Toons, chuckling softly to himself. He’ll have to thank them later, this made visiting her grave so much more comforting than going alone like the past few years. “Heh, yeah, you’re probably wonderin’ how they came to be, well, let me tell you an interestin’ story that’s all true, Linda…”

END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This made me cry a little, haha.
> 
> I’m a huge fan of Henry/Linda, so I had to include it into this au somewhere. However, I’ve already had Henry as single so I went with this route cause… hm. I dunno, I like the angst??? Hurt to kill her off though, but she’s happily and married to Henry in Ink Spots.
> 
> I also hinted that the house they live in belonged to Henry originally, but I’ll go more into detail through Henry’s perspective when I finally write that story for Matinee. It’s also gonna have a huge plot-point that ties back to one of the other one-shots in Pulling Strings, but I won’t spoil things.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to kudos and comment~! I take suggestions for ideas to write!


End file.
